According to the latest statistics given by the Agriculture Ministry on Friday, the area sown to wheat, the principal rabi crop, has decreased by 1.71 percent to 333.97 lakh hectares so far in the ongoing 2021-22 rabi season due to poorer coverage in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Madhya Pradesh. Rabi (winter) crops such as wheat are planted in October and harvested in April.
In the previous year, wheat was planted on 339.81 lakh hectares.
According to the report, the area sown to wheat in Uttar Pradesh was reduced by 3.11 lakh hectares, 1.35 lakh hectares in Haryana, 1.20 lakh hectares in Maharashtra, and 1.14 lakh hectares in Madhya Pradesh.
During the same period, wheat coverage was lower in Gujarat, Karnataka, West Bengal, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, and Uttarakhand.
In the same period, however, higher wheat area was reported from Rajasthan (1.96 lakh hectares), Bihar (0.68 lakh hectares), Chhattisgarh (0.09 lakh hectares), and Assam (0.01 lakh hectares, according to the data.
So far, much of the wheat planting has been finished.
As of December 7 of the current rabi season, there was somewhat less coverage in area under wheat, rice, pulses, and coarse-cum-nutri cereals, with the exception of oilseeds.
Given the country’s substantial reliance on imported edible oils, this is a positive indicator.
In the case of pulses, coverage has stayed stable at 156.23 lakh hectares this rabi season, compared to 157.75 lakh hectares the previous year. In the same period, gramme coverage along the border was 109.44 lakh hectares.
Rice plantings were also down this rabi season, at 16.44 lakh hectares as of December 7 compared to 18.69 lakh hectares a year ago.
The coverage of coarse-cum-nutri grains was also marginally lower, at 46.68 lakh hectares compared to 48.32 lakh hectares in the same time, according to the statistics.