Land under wheat cultivation shrinks in Rajasthan

JAIPUR: Even as the central government has hiked the minimum support price (MSP) on wheat, the Rajasthan government has reduced the land under wheat cultivation by 65,000 hectares.

According to an agriculture department official, the land for wheat cultivation in ensuing rabi season would be 25 lakh hectares as against 25.65 lakh hectare last year.

“There is an overall reduction of 77,000 hectares in the total cultivation area in this rabi season. While it was 78.67 lakh hectares last year, 77.90 hectares have been earmarked for this season. However, we are hopeful that we would touch or exceed the last year’s wheat production of 77.56 lakh tonnes,” the official said.

The state government has also reduced the land under mustard cultivation to 27 lakh hectares from last year’s 31 lakh hectares. Last year, the production of mustard was 37.67 lakh tonnes. This year the target is 37.80 lakh, but looks too ambitious due to the poor rainfall in mustard growing areas of Bharatpur, Alwar, Karauli and Dausa.

But, the state government has increased the land under cultivation for barley from 2.32 lakh hectares to 3 lakh hectares and chana from 10.11 lakh hectares to 11 lakh hectares. Last year the production of chana was 8.73 lakh tonnes, while the target for this season is 9 lakh tonnes.

Agriculture commissioner Manoj Sharma said due to uneven rains in September and October, the total land under cultivation could further be low. “We are providing farmers with adequate amount of quality seeds and fertiliser, but sowing could be delayed by 20 days,” he said. State agriculture minister Prabhu Lal Saini told ET that the government is aiming to increase the production.

“We are going to distribute agricultural loans worth Rs 1,120 crore to farmers through cooperative societies and banks for procurement of quality seeds, proper irrigation facilities and fertilisers. We are providing short-term loans to farmers through more than 5,200 village service cooperative societies across the state. The disbursement of loans has become easy with the wider use of cooperative Kisan Card,” he said.

The state government has also initiated an agreement between Rajasthan Cooperative Federation and Indian Potash to form a buffer stock of 2 lakh metric tonnes of DAP.