90 pc of wheat sowing done; acreage touches 278 lac ha so far

Area sown to wheat, the main rabi crop, touched 278 lakh hectare (ha) so far in this season, about 90 per cent of the normal sowing area under this crop, according to agriculture ministry data released on Friday.

The area sown to wheat crop is higher than 250 lakh hectare covered in the year-ago period.

Currently, farmers are planting rabi crops, sowing of which normally begins from October and harvesting from April onwards.

According to the ministry's data, more area coverage under wheat crop has been reported from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

The current low temperature in the growing regions is expected to boost the prospects of wheat crop, said the ministry official.

Besides wheat, rice has also been covered in more area at 12.35 lakh hectare so far in the ongoing rabi season of the 2019-20 crop year (July-June) from 10.11 lakh hectare in the year-ago period.

Sowing of pulses remained flat at 131.46 lakh hectare so far as against 131.38 lakh hectare a year ago.

Coverage of coarse cereals has been slightly higher at 43.70 lakh hectare as against 40.10 lakh hectare, while that of area under oilseeds remained lower at 71.79 lakh hectare as against 73.08 lakh hectare in the said period.

Total area sown to all rabi crops reached 537.21 lakh hectare so far in this rabi season, higher than 504.69 lakh hectare a year ago, the data showed.

It may be noted that rabi crops have been sown in more than 90 per cent of its normal sowing area of 634 lakh hectare.