 "A farmer casts urea on her mustard field in Allahabad")
Sowing will gain more strength in the coming weeks further as winter intensifies over most of North India. The delayed withdrawal of the southwest monsoon should also encourage farmers to bring more area under rabi crops this year as late withdrawal has left good residual moisture in the soil.
Data furnished by the department of agriculture showed wheat has been sown in around 428,000 hectares till November 4, 55.06 per cent more than that in the same period last year, while mustard has been sown in 2.73 million hectares, almost 81 per cent more than same period last year. Maximum increase has been reported in wheat area in Madhya Pradesh.
Overall, rabi crops have been sown in 8.15 million hectares, which is 8.25 per cent less than that in the same period last year mainly due to slow progress in sowing of rabi pulses mainly gram and also coarse cereals, which will improve in the coming weeks. In total rabi crops are planted in around 64 million hectares of land for which sowing continues till January.
The Central government has targeted to produce a record of over 270 million tonnes of grains this year, of which wheat production is targeted to be over 90 million tonnes.
The southwest monsoon season across the country in 2016 (June to September) was around 97 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA) which though lower than the weather office predictions was the first normal monsoon in the country since 2013.
Rainfall from 96-104 per cent of the LPA is considered normal. LPA is the average rainfall which the country has received since the last 50 years starting from 1951, which is estimated to be around 887 centimeters.
