Two third of rabi sowing over; wheat, chana acreage gains at the cost of mustard

The year-on-year sowing of rabi crops has exceeded by 1.50% as on December 9 as farmers have increased area under wheat and chana, the crops whose prices remained firm during last year. However, the area under oilseeds is still trailing behind corresponding period of last year as prices of key oilseed crops have been subdued.

More than two third of the sowing of rabi crops has been completed in the country, shows data released by the Ministry of Agriculture.

The overall sowing of pulses is also higher than the previous year by 4.27%.

The highest increase in acreage of 7.14% has been recorded in chana (gram). Chana prices, after having stayed above MSP for many months, are currently seeing a downward trend during the ongoing sowing period.

The progressive sowing of wheat is ahead by 2.28% over corres period of previous year. More than 76% of the wheat sowing has been completed as wheat has been down on 239.49 lakh hectares as against the normal wheat area of 322.35 lakh hectares.

Sowing of oilseeds like mustard, sesamum, groundnut etc is trailing by 4.34%. The prices of oilseeds like soyabean and mustard have been subdued and have even traded below the minimum support price (MSP).

The sowing of mustard is trailing significantly at 81.07 lakh hectares against 84.70 lakh hectares sown during corresponding period of the previous year.