Last Update: December 30, 2022, 15:43 IST
The outlook for the wheat crop is looking bright now and the ministry is expecting a record production under favorable weather conditions from flowering to grain filling stage.
Till December 30 of the current Rabi season of crop year 2022-23, farmers have sown wheat in more area spread over 325.10 lakh hectare.
As sowing of rabi crops draws to a close, the total area under wheat has increased by 3.59 per cent to 325.10 lakh hectares (hectares) from a year ago, according to agriculture ministry data released on Friday. Sowing of wheat, the main rabi (winter) crop, began in October. Maize, jowar, gram and mustard are other major rabi crops. The harvesting of these crops will start in March/April next year.
As per the latest data, farmers have sown wheat in a higher area of 325.10 lakh hectare till December 30 of the current rabi season of 2022-23 (July-June) crop year as compared to 313.81 lakh hectare during the same period last year was done.
Uttar Pradesh (3.59 lakh hectare), Rajasthan (2.52 lakh hectare), Maharashtra (1.89 lakh hectare), Gujarat (1.10 lakh hectare), Bihar (0.87 lakh hectare), Madhya Pradesh (0.85 lakh hectare), Chhattisgarh (0.66 lakh hectare) lakh hectare), West Bengal (0.21 lakh hectare), Jammu and Kashmir (0.08 lakh hectare), Assam (0.02 lakh hectare) and Jharkhand (0.03 lakh hectare).
A senior agriculture ministry official said sowing of rabi crops is almost complete by now. Less than one per cent of the wheat acreage may come from Uttar Pradesh, where sowing in some parts will be done in January after the sugarcane harvest.
The official said that farmers have sown wheat in more area in the hope of getting more than the support price in 2023 as well.
The outlook for the wheat crop is looking bright now and the ministry is expecting a record production under favorable weather conditions from flowering to grain filling stage.
As per the data, the area sown to paddy has also increased to 16.53 lakh hectare till December 30 in the current rabi season, which was 13.70 lakh hectare in the year-ago period.
Similarly, the area under pulses has increased to 153.09 lakh hectare as against 150.10 lakh hectare during the comparative period. So far this rabi season, out of total pulses, gram has been sown in 105.61 lakh hectares.
The data shows that the area under coarse and nutritious cereals has increased marginally from 44.85 lakh hectare to 46.67 lakh hectare.
In case of oilseeds, the total area under various oilseeds has increased to 103.60 lakh hectare till December 30 this rabi season, from 94.96 lakh hectare in the year-ago period.
Out of which the area under rapeseed-mustard has increased to 94.22 lakh hectare as compared to 86.56 lakh hectare, as per the data.
As a result, there has been an increase of 4.46 per cent in the total area sown to all types of rabi crops at 645 lakh hectare till December 30 of the current rabi season as against 617.43 lakh hectare in the year-ago period.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)