Area under wheat cultivation has increased marginally by 5 per cent to 56.76 lakh hectare so far in the onging Rabi season, according to the government data.
The acreage of wheat stood at 54.03 lakh hectare in the year-ago period. Wheat is sown in the Rabi season from October and harvested during March-April.
The government is eyeing production of additional two million tonnes of wheat in 2009-10 season by increasing acreage. It hiked the minimum support price (MSP) of wheat by Rs 20 to Rs 1,100 a quintal for 2010-11 marketing season starting April 2010.
The area covered under coarse cereals also increased to 42.13 LT till November 12 against 47.76 LT in the same period last year.
But rice acreage has remained stagnant at 0.58 LT against 0.13 LH in the year-ago period. Whereas, the acreage of oilseeds fell to 54.91 LH from 61.31 LH in the reviewed period.
The cultivation of key oilseeds– mustard seed, sunflower and groundnut — has declined. Mustard area has dipped to 43.85 LH from 46.84 LH, while sunflower to 4.26 LH from 7.40 LH and groundnut to 1.81 LH from 2.28 LH.
India produced about 116 million tonnes of foodgrain during last Rabi season.