Wheat sowing marginally down by 1.71%

New Delhi: Area sown to wheat, the main rabi crop, was down by 1.71 per cent at 333.97 lakh hectares so far in the ongoing 2021-22 rabi season as there was less coverage in UP, Haryana and MP, according to Agriculture Ministry

data released by the on Friday.

Sowing of rabi (winter) crops like wheat begins in October and harvesting from April onwards. Wheat was sown in 339.81 lakh hectares in the year-ago period.

As per the data, area sown to wheat was less by 3.11 lakh hectares in Uttar Pradesh, 1.35 lakh hectares in Haryana, 1.20 lakh hectares in Maharashtra and 1.14 lakh hectares in MP. Coverage of wheat was lower in Gujarat, Karnataka, West Bengal, Punjab, J&K, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand as well in the said period.

However higher area under wheat was reported from Rajasthan (1.96 lakh hectares), Bihar (0.68 lakh hectares), Chhattisgarh (0.09 lakh hectares and Assam (0.01 lakh hectares) in the same period, the data showed.

Much of the wheat sowing has been completed so far.

Barring oilseeds, there was marginally less coverage in area under wheat, rice, pulses and coarse-cum-nutri cereals as on December 7 of the ongoing rabi season.