Rabi pulses area up as farmers switch to cereals, oilseeds

Pulses sowing in the state grew by marginal three per cent in 2011, compared with the previous year as farmers preferred oilseeds and cereals.

Total pulses area in the state, contributing to more than two-third of winter crop planting, now stands at 768,934 hectare (ha), up from 747,940 ha planted in the last session.

Moong, urad and kulthi, or horse gram, are key pulses crop sown in the rabi season in Orissa.

Areas of rice, wheat, maize and ragi, on the other hand, rose by more than half to 20,836 ha this year.

Government officials attributed the rise in cereals area to early sowing as farmer took the benefit of the wet soil caused by heavy rains in October, which was two months ahead of usual rabi sowing period.

Rabi sowing in Orissa and in parts of eastern India normally starts in December, instead of November as in rest of India, due to late harvesting of paddy, the key kharif crop. However, as summer farm output got hit this year by back-to-back floods in September and by drought condition in south-west Orissa, the state government prioritised the pre-rabi sowing.

The government ordered quick delivery of rabi oilseeds and cereals seeds to farmers and even instructed the water reservoirs to release water for irrigation purpose at the cost of electricity production.

As a result of the rabi farm output boosting measures taken by the state government, total oilseed area went up by 15 per cent, with groundnut and mustard pushing the acreage to 265,542 ha.

Total vegetable and spices area in the state also grew by 11 per cent and 13 per cent respectively. The state grows mainly potato and cabbages in rabi season as vegetables while in spices, farmers mainly plant chilly, ginger and garlic.

Total rabi sowing area in the state so far is 1.4 million ha, up from 1.3 million ha planted last year by this time, data available from agricultural department showed.