Kharif sowing area under rice soyabean up, pulses coverage down

New Delhi, Aug 29 (UNI) The area under rice has gone up to 344.8 lakh ha as compared to 329.5 lakh ha by corresponding period last year where as area under coarse grains and pulses is lower than that of the last year.

Area under oilseeds has crossed the coverage of these crops in compared to the last year while area under soyabean has gone up by a big margin this year.

The cropped areas this year and last year for major kharif crops are as under: Crop Lakh ha Area as on Lakh ha Area as on August 28, 2008 August 28, 2007 Rice 344.8 329.5 Jowar 28.0 33.5 Bajra 74.8 81.7 Maize 69.5 72.8 Total of Coarse 191.6 207.9 Cereals Groundnut 50.3 51.5 Soyabean 95.2 87.2 Total of Oilseeds172.9 170.1 Arhar 33.3 37.5 Urad 19.8 26.2 Moong 22.8 31.2 Total of Pulses 97.8 116.9 Cotton 89.1 90.9 Sugarcane 44.1 53.0 Jute 7.4 8.3.

-- UNI BBS AK KP1832