Wheat acreage set to rise 30%

Area under cultivation rises 9.6 per cent.

The country's wheat acreage will see an increase of about 30 per cent in the ongoing rabi season, said Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar while speaking at a pre-Budget meeting on agriculture organised by the Consortium of Indian Farmers' Association.

According to the data given by the ministry of agriculture, the wheat acreage stood at 154.21 lakh hectare as on December 1, an increase of about 9.6 per cent over the corresponding period last year. Uttar Pradesh, the state with the highest area under wheat, has recorded an acreage of 41.2 lakh hectare.

However, it is lower compared with the 46.42 lakh hectare covered by the state during the same period last year.

In Punjab, 29.42 lakh hectare has been covered against 27.59 lakh hectare last year, in Madhya Pradesh 27.21 lakh hectare has been sown compared with 21.54 lakh hectare last year.

In Haryana 20.25 lakh hectare has been covered against 17.5 lakh hectare last year and in Rajasthan 12.95 lakh hectare has been sown against 8.98 lakh hectare last year. The crop condition is reported to be normal in all the states.

The area under chana has increased from 56.38 lakh hectare last year to 61.42 lakh hectare as on November 30.

This implies an increase of nearly 9 per cent over the last year's acreage.

However, the area under rapeseed-mustard has declined by about 7 per cent from 66.1 lakh hectare to 61.36 lakh hectare.

The area under rabi maize has increased from 5.48 lakh hectare to 6.48 lakh hectare as on November 30.