Wheat sowing on the rise

Sowing of India's major winter crop, wheat, is higher year-on-year, according to latest government data released Monday. Rabi wheat sowing, which began November 1, is at 5.1 million hectares as of today, the data showed. Oilseed sowing is also higher whereas coarse cereal sowing is marginally down, the release said.

The sowing of wheat has started in all the states and a total of 5.1 million hectares have been brought under cultivation thus far. Higher coverage has been reported from Haryana and Rajasthan, while sowing is lagging in Punjab.

Coarse cereal sowing, which began Oct. 1 is marginally lower from a year earlier. As of today, about 4.0 million hectares of land has been brought under jowar, down 2.4 per cent from a year ago.

Nearly 78 per cent jowar sowing is complete, at par with the sowing in the year ago period. Normally, sowing of jowar is over by the end of October. However, due to heavy rains in the latter part of last month, sowing was delayed. The normal acreage of jowar is 5.1 million hectares for the season.

Sowing of barley is at 260,000 hectares, up from 214,000 million hectares a year earlier.

However, maize sowing is lower at 241,000 hectares compared with 269,000 hectares a year ago.

Sowing of rabi rice is higher at 142,000 hectares, up 7.5 per cent from a year earlier. Tamil Nadu has reported higher rice acreage at 50,000 hectares.

Oilseed sowing, with total area under cultivation at 7.59 million hectares, is up 3.9 per cent from a year earlier.

Mustard and rapeseed sowing is high year-on-year, which has taken the entire oilseed acreage higher. About 5.4 million hectares of land has been brought under mustard sowing compared with 4.9 million hectares year ago.

Groundnut acreage is however, down at 450,000 hectares compared with 559,000 hectares a year earlier, with sowing reportedly lagging in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.