India rabi wheat sowing begins, acreage 77 lakh ha

NEW DELHI (Commodity Online): India’s Wheat sowing has been shown in 76.67 lakh hectare against 85.92 lakh hectare last year on this date, according to preliminary reports of the government.
Area coverage of wheat compared to last year is less due to mainly late harvesting of kharif Paddy crop. However, sowing of wheat is in progress and higher area has been reported from Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. The less area coverage is also attributable to non-receipt of information from some sub divisions of Uttar Pradesh.
Pulses have been sown in 49.75 lakh hectare as on today. It is 3.42 lakh hectare higher than last year’s acreage. Total area under oilseeds cultivation is reported to be 59.72 lakh hectare against 58.85 lakh hectare last year. Higher area coverage has been reported from West Bengal and Rajasthan.
Reservoir storage position is quite comfortable.
According to Central Water Commission reports, total live storage in 81 major reservoirs in different parts of the country as on 17.11.2011 was 114.59 Billion Cubic Metres (BCM) as against 95.98 BCM, the average of last 10 years.
Storage was 1.17 BCM more than last year and 18.61 BCM more than the average of last ten years’ storage capacity.
The current year’s storage is nearly 101 % of the last year’s storage and 119 % of the average of last ten years. There are 74 reservoirs with more than 80 % storage, 4 reservoirs between 51% and 80% storage.

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