Wheat sowing gathers pace as winter advances, pulses lag

Delayed harvest of the previous paddy crop responsible

With the onset of winter in many parts of north and central India, sowing of wheat and oilseeds has picked up pace. But, overall, the acreage of wheat till November 23 was still marginally lower than the corresponding period of last year mainly because of delayed harvest of the previous paddy crop.

"As the paddy gets harvested, more areas will be brought under wheat and we are hopeful of matching last year's overall wheat acreage," a senior government official said. Wheat is the biggest foodgrain sown during the rabi season.

According to an official statement, the crop has been sown in around 9.18 million hectares of land till last week ended Friday, just 4.6 per cent less than the area sown during the same period last year. Apart from wheat, a big let down in sowing till now has been pulses.

Official data showed that pulses have been planted in around 8.51 million hectares of land till last week, almost 7.9 per cent less than the same period last year.

There was a hope that delayed withdrawal of southwest monsoon rains from several parts of western and northern India would spur pulses sowing, but that did not seem to be the case as of last week.

Among other crops, oilseeds have been planted in around 6.12 million hectares of land till Friday, almost 4.6 per cent more than last year, while the acreage under coarse cereals was just 0.4 per cent less than last year at 4.17 million hectares.

Experts believe that with adequate water available in major reservoirs across the country and sufficient quantities of moisture in soil because of late withdrawal of southwest monsoon, sowing of wheat will gather momentum in the coming few weeks. The worry could  be in pulses. After the loss in kharif, all the focus was on rabi pulses production.

According to an assessment made by National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), production of kharif pulses is expected to be 5.26 million tonnes, around 15 per cent less than last year's. Assuming a normal rabi pulses output of 11.5 million tonnes, total pulses production in 2012-13 would be around 17 million tonnes, 0.2 million tonnes less than last year because of deficient monsoon.

"This could be a big worrying factor as any small drop in pulses production leads to significant rise in prices, Supply is already less than demand for pulses," another expert said.

The NCAER report said the other crops which could suffer adverse impact of uneven rains in the monsoon season are onions, potatoes, bananas and oilseeds.

According to the Central Water Commission (CWC), the level of water in 84 major reservoirs across the country was almost 105 Billion Cubic Meters (BCM) till Thursday, which was 92 per cent of the level in the corresponding period of last year and 105 per cent of the 10-year average storage. EoM

Pointers

• Wheat sowing picks up pace as winters progress
• Pulses lag behind despite late withdrawal of monsoon
• Good Water In Reservoirs Should Aid in Wheat Sowing
• Government targets over 80 million tonnes of wheat production in 2013-14