Crop area of wheat increases to 284.497 lakh ha

New Delhi, Feb 19 (UNI) Wheat has been sown in 284.497 lakh hectares (ha) in this rabi season as compared to 266.63 lakh ha in the corresponding period last year, representing an increase of over 17.9 lakh hectare.

Wheat covered 260.5 lakh ha on an average in the preceding five years. This year's area under wheat is 9.2 per cent more than the average and 6.8 per cent more than the last year's area, an official release said here today.

Significantly, higher coverage has been reported in Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The crop condition is normal.

Rabi rice has been sown in 28.27 lakh ha this year as compared to 25.83 lakh ha upto this time last year.

Sowing of rice is in progress in Andhra Pradesh, Asom, Bihar, Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

Area under maize has increased from 9.948 lakh ha to 11.134 lakh ha and all coarse cereals from 67.324 lakh ha during the corresponding period in 2005-06 to 69.206 lakh ha this year.

Rabi pulses have so far covered 139.488 lakh ha as compared to 135.83 lakh ha by this time last year. This is 27.3 per cent above the season's normal area coverage under pulses and about 2.7 per cent above last year's area.

Area under rabi oilseeds (96.91 lakh ha) is less this year as compared to last year (109.05 lakh ha) but it is higher than the five year average of area under rabi oilseeds (83.71 lakh ha) by 16 per cent. The less coverage this season as compared to last year is attributed to diversion of area of rapeseed and mustard to Bengal gram in Madhya Pradesh and to wheat in Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

The total live storage in 76 important reservoirs in different parts of the country, monitored by CWC as on 15.2.2007 was 71.093 Billion Cubic Metre (BCM) against 70.659 BCM during corresponding date of previous year and 56.844 BCM which is the average storage of last 10 years.

The current year's storage is nearly 101 per cent of the last year's storage and 125 per cent of the average of last ten years.

UNI