Wheat sowing up on favourable climate

The area under wheat rose a marginal 2 per cent this year on favourable climatic conditions. Late monsoon left adequate moisture content in the soil that suited the wheat sowing for this rabi season.

NCDEX Institute of Commodities Market and Research (NICR), referring to statistics collated by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics and Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), reported the total acreage under wheat at 260.71 lakh hectares (ha) as on December 31 compared with 255.62 lakh ha till the same day last year.

In the meantime, wheat output in India is estimated at 82 million tonnes in the rabi season as compared with 80.58 million tonnes in the previous season.

Wheat production in India witnessed an increase of 17 per cent over the last five years while the minimum support price of this major foodgrain moved up by 70 per cent. The year 2009 saw India achieving a record production and procurement of wheat which has helped in maintaining comfortable stocks with government agencies, an NICR report said.

The stock of wheat in the Central Pool as on December 1 was at 25.2 million tonnes.

Globally, wheat production for 2009-10 is forecast at 673.9 million tonnes whereas consumption is estimated at 646.7 million tonnes, according to the USDA.

Canada’s production is forecast to increase by 2.5 million tonnes to 26.5 million tonnes in December, which is still 2.1 million tonnes lower than the output in 2008-09.