Winter chill pushes up wheat sowing

With the winter setting in firmly over north and central India, sowing of wheat has gathered momentum. For the first time this year, for the week ended December 2, sowing was more than the same period last year.

Area under oilseeds also rose significantly during the week on favourable weather. Officials from the agriculture ministry said sowing of wheat, lagging till now due to delayed paddy harvest (de-husked rice) in Uttar Pradesh, had also gathered pace in the state. As on December 2, the acreage was just nine per cent less than the same period last year.

“Much would now depend on how winter pans over the next few months, as the final yield would depend on all these factors,” a senior agricultural ministry official said.

According to the India Meteorological Department, a shallow fog formed over Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana on November 24-25 and this would intensify from December 7. The four states contribute to 90 per cent of the annual wheat production in India.

Across the country, sowing was completed in 17.12 million hectares, 173,000 hectares more than last year. Data from the agriculture department show winters also helped push up mustard sowing across the country. Till Friday, the total area under mustard was estimated at 5.96 million hectares, up 148,000 hectares from last year.

The sowing of pulses continued to show impressive growth, largely due to renewed government focus on raising production during the rabi season. The country needs a decent supply of pulses after the rabi season, as production during the preceding kharif season is estimated to have dropped 10 per cent to 6.43 million tonnes, thanks to low rain from mid-June to early July.