India: Rabi sowing tad below last year’s level

With just a few weeks left for the season to be over, sowing of rabi or winter crops such as wheat, pulses, oilseeds and coarse cereals have been a tad below last year’s level so far as areas under oilseeds have declined. The total area covered under rabi crops has been 59.08 million hectare (Mha), as 93% of the sowing is complete, according to data from the agriculture ministry released on Tuesday. “Sowing windows is still available for all crops and it is expected to achieve normal area (63.53 Mha),” according to an official note. Officials said the sowing activities would continue till the middle of January and harvesting of crops would commence in last week of March. Wheat, the main rabi crop, has been sown in 31.22 million hectare (Mha), an increase of 2.5% over last year. Sowing of wheat with late sown varieties will continue for the next couple of weeks. The area covered under pulses — gram, masoor and urad — has declined marginally to 12.56 Mha on year and is likely to ...