ACCELERATED SOWING OF RABI CROPS
Reports of accelerated
sowing of rabi crops continue to come in. Wheat is a major rabi
cereal with a normal area of about 264 lakh hectares which is
about 55% of the area under Rabi foodgrains. Wheat sowing gains
momentum with the average temperature descending to 25oC.
Major wheat growing States in the country are Uttar Pradesh ,
Madhya Pradesh, Punjab , Rajasthan , Haryana and Bihar with normal
area of 91, 38,34,24,23 and 21 lakh hectares respectively. Wheat
sowing has commenced and area coverage reported so far is 30.1
lakh hectares against 22.6 lakh hectares covered last year in
the corresponding period.
Normal area under
Rabi Rice is about 42 lakh hectares. West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh
account for two thirds of the area and it is mostly irrigated.
The area coverage reported so far is 1.3 lakh hectares against
1.1 lakh hectares during the corresponding period last year.
Area reported so
far under Rabi Coarse Cereals is 49 lakh hectares against 45.8
lakh hectares in the corresponding period last year. Jowar is
the major Rabi coarse cereal.The area coverage of Jowar reported
so far is 43.4 lakh hectares as compared to 40.5 lakh hectares
during the corresponding period last year.
As on the fourteenth
of this month, total water storage in the 71 important reservoirs
monitored by the Central Water Commission was about 59% of the
full reservoir level of 131.28 billion cubic meters. This is 121%
of the last year’s level and 81% of last 10 years’ average. There
are 26 project having storage of more than 80%. 10 projects have
storage between 50% and 80% of the designed live storage, 19 between
30% and 50% and the remaining 16 projects up to 30% of the designed
live storage.
