The sowing of key rabi crops, such as wheat, pulses, oilseeds and coarse cereals, has declined by 3% on year, impacted by the late harvesting of paddy and diversion to other crops, officials said on Friday. According to data from the agriculture ministry on Friday, wheat is sown in 30.86 million hectare (MHa), a drop of 3% from last year.

The area under wheat in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh has surpassed the normal sown area of 30.73 MHa. An agriculture ministry official said the sowing of rabi crops is “slightly delayed” due to the late harvesting of kharif paddy in some states. “The prospects of rabi crops seem to be good as per feedback received from the states,” the official added.However, it is still early days to make an assessment of the rabi crop output as sowing would continue through December.

However, the area under oilseeds is marginally up at 10.23 MHa on year. In case of mustard, the key oilseed crop sowing has been up 24% at 9.52 MHa compared with the normal sown area of 7.3 MHa.In 1.26 MHa, rice has been sown in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, 10% lower than last year. The government has set a marginally higher foodgrain production target of 332 million tonne (MT) for the 2023-24 crop year (July-June), of which the rabi season is expected to contribute 161.2 MT. Foodgrain production in 2022-23 was estimated at 329.6 MT.

The government has set a higher wheat production target of a record 114 MT for the 2023-24 crop year against an estimated output of 110.5 MT in 2022-23. The government is aiming to bring around 60% of the total wheat area under the climate-resistant varieties for dealing with extreme climatic conditions such as the heatwave and rainfall witnessed just prior to harvesting of crops in the last two years.