India on course for bumper harvest, Rabi sowing scales multi-year high

India is on course for a bumper harvest in 2019-20, unless weather plays spoilsport during final harvest stage, as the latest data shows that acreage under rabi foodgrains has risen to multi-year highs of 64.13 million hectares (ha), up 5.07 million ha from the corresponding period last year. It is even more than the average acreage of the past five years.

Data from the agriculture ministry shows that among the main rabi crops, wheat acreage touched a record 33.02 million ha as on January 16, 2020. This is not only 3.32 million ha more than last year, but 8 per cent