Due to sharp increase in pulses acreage in West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, sowing of summer crops is 21.5 per cent higher than last year to exceed 73.76 lakh hectares so far against 60.67 lakh hectares during the same period a year ago. According to the ministry of agriculture, the area has increased to 12.75 lakh hectares from last year’s coverage of 6.45 lakh hectares. The rise has been reported mainly from Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Gujarat.
According to the ministry, the area under rice has gone up by 15.59% from last year to 39.1 lakh hectare. Similarly, the oilseeds area has also witnessed a rise of 15.66%. The area of coarse cereals like jowar, bajra and ragi has seen marginal growth.
Oilseeds have increased to 10.45 lakh hectare from 9.03 lakh hectare, which is an increase of around 16 percent. The area has been reported from West Bengal, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. “We are also promoting cultivation of oilseeds as we have to import 57% edible oil to meet our domestic requirement. The government wants to cut down on import bill of edible oil, which has crossed Rs 70,000 crore,” officials said.