Rice, Soyabean cultivation up; Cotton, sugarcane, groundnut dips

New Delhi, Sep 26 (UNI) Barring rice, cultivation of all major coarse cereals and pulses alongwith of groundnut, sugarcane, cotton and jute have declined this year in the country, official data released today said.

The area under rice has gone up to 379.74 lakh hectares this year as compared to 367.33 lakh hectares by last year but acreage under jowar, bajra and maize has shrunk, according to Agriculture ministry.

On account of high acreage under soyabeen, area under oilseeds also went up to 180.9 lakh hectares as compared to 176 lakh hactares the previous season. While soyabeen has been sown in 96.2 lakh hectares, up from 87.6 lakh hectare, groundnut cultivation went down to 50.9 lakh hectares from 53.8 lakh hectares, the data said.

Jowar's acreage shrunk to 29.1 lakh hectares from 33.9 lakh hectares, Bajra's declined to 77.7 lakh hectares from 82.7 per cent and Maize's went down to 71.2 lakh hectares from 73.5.

Cultivation of all major pulses and that of sugarcane, cotton and jute also registered a decline this year, according to the data.

Arhar's area declined to 34.3 lakh hectares from 38.5 lakh hectares, Urad's dipped to 21.6 lakh hectares and of Moong went down by nearly eight lakh hectares from 31.7 to 23.9 lakh hectares.

Cotton area shrunk to 90.8 lakh hectares from 92.1 lakh hectares, sugarcane's declined to 44.2 lakh hectares from 53 lakh hectares last year and that of jute came down to 7.4 lakh hectares from 8.3 lakh hectares, the ministry added.

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