Around 58 lakh hectares of land have been sown under rabi crops so far this season, while pulses acreage stands at 20.65 lakh hectares.
Area under wheat, the main rabi crop, so far stands at 1.20 lakh hectares compared to 2.06 lakh hectares in the year -ago period.
Rabi sowing starts from October while harvesting begins from March.
"As per preliminary reports on the sowing of crops, sowing of rabi crops has started in some parts of the country. The total area sown under rabi crops as on October 30, 2015 has 58.34 lakh hectares as compared to 58.48 lakh hectares last year at this time," the Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.
As per the official data, pulses have been sown in 20.65 lakh hectares compared to 21.31 lakh hectares last year, while area under coarse cereals has more than doubled to 27.04 lakh hectares from 14.29 lakh hectares in the year ago period.
Area under oilseeds has fell down to 9.43 lakh hectares from 20.83 lakh hectares in the year ago period.
Rice has been sown in 0.02 lakh hectares so far.
