Wheat sowing, the main rabi crop, begins in October and harvesting in March-April. (File)
New Delhi:
The area sown with wheat has increased by 5.36 percent annually to 211.62 lakh hectares in the first two months of the current rabi (winter) season, with higher coverage in Rajasthan, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, according to data from the Department of Agriculture released today.
Wheat sowing, the main rabi crop, begins in October and harvesting in March-April. In addition to wheat, rice and legumes such as gram, urad and oilseeds such as groundnuts and mustard are also grown during this season.
According to the latest data from the ministry, wheat has been sown on 211.62 lakh hectares so far in the current rabi season, up from 200.85 lakh hectares in the same period a year ago.
Higher elevation areas have been seeded in Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Punjab.
The acreage under sowing of rice has increased marginally to 10.62 lakh hectares on December 2 of the current rabi season from 9.53 lakh hectares in the same period last year.
The acreage for legumes has also marginally increased to 112.67 lakh hectares on December 2 of the current rabi season, from 108.57 lakh hectares in the same period a year ago.
Gram is the main legume grown in the rabi season whose area has increased marginally to 79.82 lakh hectares compared to 75.80 lakh hectares in the same period a year ago.
In the case of coarse grains, the acreage has increased to 32.63 lakh hectares from 29.02 lakh hectares in the same period a year ago.
Similarly, the area sown with oilseeds has increased to 83.07 lakh hectares from 75.55 lakh hectares in the same period last year. Rapeseed mustard is the main oilseed grown during the rabi season, the acreage of which increased from 69.32 lakh hectares to 76.69 lakh hectares during the same period, the data showed.
The total area sown for all rabi crops remained higher at 450.61 lakh hectares on 2 December of the current rabi season, compared to 423.52 lakh hectares in the same period last year
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is being published from a syndicated feed.)
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