As sowing of rabi crops picks up pace across the country, pulses seem to be gaining the most largely because of good late rains and firm prices in the retail markets. Also, this winter, the government is making fresh efforts to boost cultivation so as to compensate for the loss suffered in this respect during the monsoon-time kharif.
Till last week, the total area under rabi pulses had gone up by 22 per cent over last year. In kharif, production is projected to drop by around 10 per cent to 6.43 million tonnes, because of a slight break in rains from end-June to mid-July.
The latest data from the department of agriculture show that rabi pulses have been planted on 4.50 million hectares till November 9, from 3.68 million hectares during the same period last year.
The biggest jump has been in the area under gram in Madhya Pradesh (1.29 million hectares, up 80 per cent more than last year) and Rajasthan (833,000 hectares, up 65 per cent). Together, they account for four-fifth of the gram produced in the country. Overall, acreage of all pulses, which also includes lentil and peas apart from gram, in these two states is almost 59 per cent and 65 per cent more than last year.
If the trend is maintained and the weather remains benign, India could witness another year of record pulses production. (It was 18.09 mt in 2010-11.)
The area under oilseeds (5.04 million hectares) is almost one per cent more than last year.
Among other crops, sowing of wheat, the biggest foodgrain cultivated during the rabi season has started in some pockets of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.It will gather pace in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh in the coming days.
Central India received around 10 per cent above normal rains during the June-September period this year.
