The rabi crop acreage is likely to rise from 4 million hectares witnessed in the last season.
Good monsoon this year and better pricing scenario for agri-commodities has improved rabi crop sowing prospects in the current crop year.
According to the estimates provided by the state agriculture department, the rabi crop acreage is likely to rise from 4 million hectares witnessed in the last rabi season.
"The extended monsoon and current climatic conditions indicate a conducive environment for rabi sowing this year. We expect a rise over last year," said a senior official from state agriculture department. However, it will be difficult to provide any estimates at this stage since sowing activity will commence as the October nears end," he added.
Wheat is one of the major rabi crops in Gujarat. Last year, wheat acreage in the state stood at 1.59 million hectares, which is expected to remain almost steady with minor increase in the area.
"Heavy rains witnessed lately in key growing areas would surely benefit all the rabi crops in the state, especially the wheat," said N C Patel, vice chancellor, Junagadh Agriculture University.
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Besides wheat, other major rabi crops cultivated in the state include oilseeds like castor and rapeseed-mustard as well as grams. "Due to sustained heavy rains during monsoon, soil will sustain its moisture which will help crops like wheat, jeera and chana," added Patel. However according to him, the acreage will not show any remarkable change in wheat or any other crops for rabi season.
The south-west monsoon during July-September has been good across all key growing regions in the state.
Till mid-September, several parts of Gujarat including Saurashtra had received 23 per cent excess rains while in most parts the rainfall remained normal. The sufficient rainfall helped timely sowing for kharif crop in the state.
Area under kharif crop in the current season has remained almost stable at about 8.87 million hectares. According to agriculture experts, availability of water resources has increased in the state due to good rainfall in past five years in the state.
Irrigation is also expected to improve for the rabi crop as most dams were full during the heavy monsoon.
As per the industry estimates post a good monsoon nearly 110 dams in the state of Gujarat are totally filled. These include major dams like Kadana, Shetrunji, Bhadar, Dharoi, Panam, Karjan and Machhu dams in Saurashtra and central Gujarat.