Rabi crops sowing acreage has touched an all time high this season. According to data furnished by the Ministry of Agriculture, rabi crop sowing completed 675 lakh hectare this year, up from than 662 lakh hectare last year, an increase of 2.86 percent. This is an indication that farmers have not boycotted the farming activities despite protests since October last year.
The record rabi crops sowing acreage is the indication they participated in the protests in a planned manner. With a majority of farmers pitching in at Delhi borders in protest against the new central farm laws, their family members have been left taking care of standing wheat crop in the field and other allied activities back home. In absence of adult males, women have taken the charge of irrigating fields, sprinkling fertilisers in them, tending cattle, milking cows and chopping fodder for them. In some villages, committees have also been formed in several villages where fellow villagers irrigate crops of those who are at the protest site. The sowing in the current season is not over yet while their protest enters the 59th day.
As per the data, all major rabi crops, barring a few coarse cereals, surpassed the area planted in the previous season, which was by far the best, already.
With 345 lakh hectare acreage, the coverage of wheat has also touched the highest level 3.13% more than last year. Much of the increase in wheat planting was reported from Madhya Pradesh — which planted an additional area of 8.3 lakh hectare, Maharashtra 1.07 lakh hectare and Bihar 0.84 lakh hectare more. Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Uttarakhand among those states which planted less wheat this season. Madhya Pradesh has surpassed Punjab in wheat cultivation for the past two years.
The paddy acreage has also gone up sharply by 15.24% from last year but significantly down by more than 28% as compared to average area during this time. Much of the increase in rice area came from Telangana which planted an additional 3.49 lakh hectare under rice.
Gram and mustard are two other crops which have done exceedingly well in terms of coverage. Gram has been planted over nearly 111 lakh hectare, while mustard fields covered close to 74 lakh hectare. At the end of the previous rabi season, the area of gram and mustard was around 107 lakh hectare and 70 l akh hectare, respectively.
However, there is a dip in area under coarse cereals. As compared to nearly 55 lha planted in the same week last year, coarse cereals covered only around 51 lha so far.
Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar congratulated farmers in the country for their tireless hard work. “Despite the corona epidemic, farmers have achieved record area coverage under rabi crops as well as in kharif season, which is remarkable,” Tomar said.
According to summer crop campaign, a target of 51 lakh has been fixed to cover summer season with pulses, oil seeds and nutri-cereals crops this season. Further, as per 4th Advance Estimates (2019-20), total food grains production in the country is estimated at 296.65 million tonnes, and horticulture production 319.57 which will be an all time record in 2019-20.
The pulses and oilseeds production is at 23.15 and 33.42 million tonnes, respectively. Production of cotton is being estimated at 354.91 lakh bales with which India is set to rise to the top producing countries in the world.