State Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal on Wednesday informed that sowing work for cereal crops had been taken up in 3.50 lakh hectares area in the current Rabi season.
He said pulses crop such as gram, green peas and lentils have been sown. In the present scenario, farmers have sown pulses crops in around 7. 19 lakh hectares area.
Previously, the government had aimed to sow such crops in 8.75 lakh hectares area.
As far as the sowing of oilseeds is concerned, Agrawal said it has been done in over 2 lakh hectares by January 5 of which linseed has been sown in 45,000 hectares followed by Mustard, Sesame and Rapeseed in 1.14 lakh hectares and Sunflower in 5,000 hectares respectively.
Sowing of cereals including wheat, maize, barley, rice and sorghum in around 2 lakh hectares had been against the assigned targets, officials stated.
Notably, the Government has decided to sow cereal, oilseeds, pulses and vegetables in around 17 lakh hectares in the ongoing sowing of Rabi Crops out of which sowing in 12 lakh hectares has been covered by January 5, stated officials.
By December 23 last year, sowing for Rabi season crops was completed in 60 per cent of the cultivation area in Chhattisgarh.
Moreover, during the current season, vegetables would be grown in 1.70 lakh hectares and the farmers have already carried out sowing in one lakh hectares of land.
The farmers have also carried out sowing for sugarcane crops in an estimated 10,000 hectares of land.
Notably, the Agriculture Department has started encouraging the farmers to sow more of pulses crop in Rabi season 2015-16.
As per the given target, 3.60 lakh hectares have been marked for sowing gram, 30,000 hectares for lentils, 30,000 hectares for moong, 15,000 hectares for urad, 40,000 hectares for kulthi and 3.50 lakh hectares have been marked for sowing Tivra crop.
The Agriculture Minister informed that two lakh hectares of area have been finalized for oilseeds crops and necessary preparations are underway.
This includes 1.50 lakh hectares for mustard, 70,000 hectares for Alsi, 10,000 hectares for Kusum, 15,000 hectares for sunflower, 5,000 hectares for sesame and and 25 hectares of land for sowing peanuts.
He informed that the Department has planned to utilize 1.65 lakh hectares of land for cultivation of vegetables in summer season. This includes 35,000 hectares for sugarcane cultivation.