Area under major Rabi crops in Rajasthan is less than last year
04-Nov-2024 04:10 PM
Jaipur. In Rajasthan, the biggest producer of mustard and barley and a major producer of gram and wheat, sowing of Rabi crops is happening at a slow pace in the current year as compared to last year.
Firstly, the preparation and harvesting of Kharif crops has not gained momentum there and secondly, due to less rainfall in some mills, lack of moisture is being seen in the soil.
There, less stock of water is being made in dams and reservoirs. According to official data, the production area of mustard, the most important oilseed crop of Rabi season, could reach 18.75 lakh hectares till 31 October this year, which is 3.25 lakh hectares less than the sowing area of 22 lakh hectares during the same period last year and 46 percent of the sowing target of 40.50 lakh hectares set for the entire season.
Last year, the target of sowing mustard in the state was set at 40.01 lakh hectares. It is noteworthy that Rajasthan is the most prominent producer of mustard in the country, while its other important producing states include Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana,
Bengal and Gujarat. Apart from this, mustard is also produced in states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Punjab and Chhattisgarh.
The target for sowing of pulses for the current Rabi season in Rajasthan has been fixed at 22.87 lakh hectares, in which the target for the area of gram alone is 22.50 lakh hectares.
Out of this, by 31 October 2024, gram had been sown in 7.25 lakh hectares and other pulses in 4 thousand hectares. In this way, sowing of gram (pulses) was completed in about one-third of the area compared to the total target.
But the area of wheat and barley is lagging far behind the target and the pace of its sowing is also very slow. Its combined sowing target has been set at 35.81 lakh hectares, while actual sowing was possible only in 56 thousand hectares or 1.6 percent area.
The target for wheat sowing is 32 lakh hectares, but the actual area has reached only about 46 thousand hectares. Last year, wheat was sown in a total of 31.06 lakh hectares in the state.