Area sown for Rabi crops up by 2.86 per cent

There has been a 2.86 per cent increase in total area sown for Rabi crops at 665.58 lakh hectares (ha) so far in the current Rabi season of the 2022-23 crop year (July-June) from 647.02 lakh ha a year ago. This was stated in the data released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare on January 6.

According to the latest data, the area sown for wheat has increased by less than one per cent to 332.16 lakh ha from 329.88 lakh ha during the same period last year. A higher area has been reported from the states of Rajasthan (2.52 lakh ha), Uttar Pradesh (1.69 lakh ha), Maharashtra (1.20 lakh ha), Gujarat (0.70 lakh ha),  Chhattisgarh (0.63 lakh ha), Bihar (0.44 lakh ha), West Bengal (0.10 lakh ha), Jammu & Kashmir (0.06 lakh ha) and Assam (0.03 lakh ha).

Less area has been reported from the states of  Madhya Pradesh (4.27 lakh ha), Jharkhand (0.23 lakh ha), Haryana (0.22 lakh ha), Punjab (0.14 lakh ha),  Himachal Pradesh (0.10 lakh ha), Uttarakhand (0.03 lakh ha) and Karnataka (0.02 lakh ha).

The area sown for rice has also increased to 21.29 lakh ha so far in the current Rabi season compared to 16.45 lakh ha in the year-ago period. About 157.67 lakh ha area coverage has been reported for pulses compared to 156.23 lakh ha during the corresponding period of last year.

For coarse-cum-nutri cereals, about 48.97 lakh ha area coverage has been reported compared to 46.80 lakh ha during the corresponding period of last year.

In the case of oilseeds, the total area sown to various types of oilseeds has increased to 105.49 lakh ha so far this Rabi season against 97.66 lakh ha in the year-ago period.