In the current Rabi season, farmers have completed sowing of pulses and oilseed crops on nearly 10.78 lakh hectares of land in Chhattisgarh, officials stated. This includes pulses on 8.30 lakh hectares and oilseed crops on 2.48 lakh hectares. Presently, the sowing work is nearing completion. Agriculture Department officials informed that farmers have completed nearly 90 per cent of the sowing of various Rabi crops.
The Agriculture Department has set the target of sowing Rabi crops on total 18.76 lakh hectares. Till date, Rabi crops have been sown on around 16.69 lakh. Officials informed that this year, target to sow food crops on 4.20 lakh hectares have been set. Against this target, sowing on nearly 4.30 lakh hectares has been done. This includes sowing of wheat on 1.72 lakh hectare, corn on 61,880 hectares, paddy on 1.63 lakh hectares and barley on 4,600 hectares.
In the ongoing Rabi season, grams have been sown on 3.52 lakh hectares, peas on 47,790 hectares, lentils on 27,790 hectares, moong on 18,600 hectares, urad on 13, 430 hectares, Kulthi on 28,130 hectares and other pulses on 6,580 hectares. In this season, Tivra crop has been sown on nealy 3.35 lakh hectares. Officials informed that this year, the department has set the target of sowing oilseed crop Alsi on more than 70,000 hectares of area.
Against which, alsi crop has been sown on 64,430 hectares. In this way, mustard has been sown on 1.38 lakh hectare, til has been sown on 2,440 hectares, sunflower on 4,400 hectares, kusum on 7,130 hectares, peanut on 27,260 hectares and other oilseed crops on 4 320 hectares. In ongoing Rabi season, sugarcane has been planted on 25,180 hectare in Chhattisgarh. likewise, vegetables have been sown on 1.62 lakh hectares.
The Central Government has fixed procurement target for Rabi Marketing Season (RMS) 2015-16 as 300.59 lakh tonnes against the actual wheat procurement of 280.23 lakh tonnes during RMS 2014-15, an official press release stated. The target was fixed in the meeting of State Food Secretaries held to discuss procurement arrangements. The meeting was chaired by Sudhir Kumar, Union Secretary of Food and Public Distribution in New Delhi recently.
The Central Government has also fixed target for overall rice procurement for Kharif Marketing Season (KMS) 2014-15, as 351.09 lakh tonnes which include 300.50 lakh tonnes for Kharif crop and 50.59 lakh tonnes for Rabi crop, it stated. The actual procurement of rice during KMS 2013-14 and KMS 2014-15 so far has been reported as 318.39 lakh tonnes and 207.44 lakh tonnes respectively.
Procurement estimates of main wheat growing states as reported by them are Punjab- 120 lakh tonnes, Haryana- 70 lakh tonnes, Madhya Pradesh- 60 lakh tonnes, Uttar Pradesh- 30 lakh tonnes and Rajasthan- 18 lakh tonnes. As per Rabi Crops data released by Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Union Ministry of Agriculture, total area coverage as on today under Rabi crops moves to 615.74 lakh hectares while last year’s sowing area was at 656.89 lakh hectare.
Wheat sowing area in the country is at 306.35 lakh hectares as compared to last year’s 315.32 lakh hectares. The area under sowing of total Coarse cereals is at 57.74 lakh hectares as compared to last year’s 60.08 lakh hectares. The area under sowing of Gram is at 85.91 lakh hectares this year while the last year’s figure was 102.25 lakh hectares. Area coverage under Total Pulses is at 145.92 lakh hectares while the last year’s sowing area coverage was 162.21 lakh hectares.
Similarly sowing area under total oilseeds is at 80.92 lakh hectares as compared to 90.20 lakh hectares last year.
