Pulses and sugarcane acreages rise

NEW DELHI: At a time when commission for agriculture costs and prices ( CACP ) has advised 25%-30% hike in floor price of pulses, the area under pulses has shown an increase over last year.

According to the preliminary reports from agriculture department, farmers have sown pulses across 10.89 lakh hectare in the current sowing season so far. The cultivated area is higher by 7.33 lakh hectare as compared to last year in the corresponding period.

"The progress of sowing report is based on reports collected from states like. India produced around 17 million tonnes (estimated) of pulses during 2011-12," an agriculture department official said.

The department said that the sugarcane acreage is also higher than last year. "Sugarcane has been planted in 48.61 lakh hectare as compared to 47.61 lakh hectare last year in the corresponding period. It is 1.00 lakh hectare more than last year. Normal area for sugarcane cropping is 47.45 lakh hectare," the official said.

Higher cane acreage has been reported from Uttar Pradesh (0.90 lakh hectare), Tamil Nadu (0.66 lakh hectare), Karnataka (0.50 lakh hectare), Bihar (0.21 lakh hectare), Madhya Pradesh (0.11 lakh hectare), Uttarakhand (0.06 lakh hectare), Maharashtra (0.04 lakh hectare), Punjab (0.03 lakh hectare) and Andhra Pradesh (0.01 lakh hectare).