Surge in wheat and oilseeds' output but pulses a concern

Sowing of wheat, oilseeds and pulses, the three major rabi crops, saw a strong upward trend during the week ending December 7, making up for much of the shortage so far in this regard. However, overall output of pulses could be affected because of the late revival of rain.

According to the latest data from the agriculture ministry, wheat has been sown on 18.33 million hectares till Thursday, 0.16 million hectares more than the corresponding period of last year and 0.62 million hectares more than the normal area (defined as average sown in the past five years).

The big boost has come from Madhya Pradesh, emerging as a major producer. The data showed wheat had been planted on 3.88 million hectares till last week, almost 18 per cent more than the same period last year. Usually, wheat sowing takes place on 4.2 million hectares in MP during the season. In 2011-12, the state produced a record 12 million tonnes of wheat, marginally behind Haryana — till now, the latter and Punjab were the only ones termed the country’s ‘wheat bowl’. Overall, farmers produced an all-time high of 94 million tonnes of wheat last year.

Officials said if this trend continued and the weather remained benign, MP could produce another bumper harvest. The general rise in sowing also means that freezing the wheat MSP at the 2011-12 level has not discouraged growers, as was being anticipated.

In pulses, the area sown has shown remarkable improvement in recent weeks; as of Thursday, it was just 100,000 hectares less than last year. Still, experts are worried about the final output. “Pulses are predominantly sown in rainfed areas and so, if there is late revival in showers, as has happened this year, the final production does suffer,” said Ramesh Chand, director of the National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research. Till Thursday, pulses were sown on 11.61 million hectares, as against 11.71 million hectares last year. Output during the kharif season was estimated at 5.26 million tonnes, 33.4 per cent less than last year.

PTI adds: The yields of major crops, including rice, oilseeds, sugarcane and cotton fell by up to six per cent during the kharif season compared with the previous season due to delayed rains, said an agriculture ministry official.

India annually produces 17-18 million tonnes of pulses, bulk of which is in the rabi season. If pulses output falls this year, on account of low rainfall during the first two months of the southwest monsoon, the import bill would rise. India imports two to four million tonnes annually of pulses.

Oilseeds had been planted on 7.19 million hectares till Thursday, 54,000 hectares more than last year. Mustard is the oilseed grown most widely during rabi.

In all, crops were sown on 42.06 million hectares till Thursday. The previous total for the entire season was 61.37 million hectares.