Wheat Sowing Crosses 340 Lakh Hectares, Pulses Lag in Rabi Season

New Delhi, Jan 19 (PTI) The total area sown to wheat has crossed 340 lakh hectares in the current rabi season of the 2023-24 crop year (July-June), but pulses coverage remained lower, according to the agriculture ministry data released on Friday.

The sowing of wheat, the main rabi (winter) crop, that began in October has been completed.

Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Punjab are the top three states having the maximum area under wheat coverage.

As per the ministry's latest data, wheat has been sown in 340.08 lakh hectare as on January 19 of the ongoing rabi season, as against 337.50 lakh hectares in the year-ago period.

While area sown to coarse cereals and oilseeds remained higher than the previous year, the coverage of pulses and paddy was down in this rabi season.

Pulses have been sown in 155.13 lakh hectares in 2023-24 rabi season, down from 162.66 lakh hectares in the previous year. Area under gram, urad and moong remained lower, the data showed.

However, lentil (masur) area is higher at 19.51 lakh hectares so far this rabi season, as against 18.46 lakh hectares in the year-ago period.

Paddy acreage also remained lower at 28.25 lakh hectares, as against 29.33 lakh hectares in the said period.

According to the data, total area under coarse cereals remained higher at 53.83 lakh hectares so far this rabi season, as against 50.77 lakh hectares in the year-ago period.

Oilseeds coverage improved slightly to 109.88 lakh hectares as against 108.82 lakh hectares in the said period, the data showed.

Due to lag in paddy and pulses coverage, the overall area under all rabi crops remained down at 687.18 lakh hectares so far the 2023-34 rabi season, compared with 689.09 lakh hectares in the year-ago period.

Besides wheat, sowing of other rabi crops is almost completed. The weekly data is being released giving updated figures of the sown area after taking into account the details from some states which sent the data late.