Acreage under most crops increases; glut situation likely.
Our Bureau
New Delhi, Jan. 2 The Centre has yet again deferred a decision on fixing the minimum support prices (MSP) for crops planted in the ongoing rabi (winter) season.
The Union Cabinet, which met here on Friday, did not take up the issue at all, with official sources attributing it to the Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, not being in town.
The rabi MSPs are usually announced by October, just before the commencement of sowing operations. The idea here is to send the right price signal to farmers, so as to encourage or discourage growing particular crops.
This time, however, there has been an apparent divide within the Government. Intervention?
The Agriculture Ministry has sought higher MSPs, whereas the Finance Ministry-Planning Commission duo have opposed any increase fearing it could stoke inflationary fires in the run-up to Parliament elections.
There is also concern over a prospective glut situation developing in most agri-commodities in the wake of the global financial meltdown. This would, then, force government agencies to make large-scale purchases from the market, with higher MSPs only adding to the fiscal costs of such intervention.
But despite no MSPs being declared, farmers have so far planted more area under wheat, rapeseed-mustard, gram and most other rabi crops this year compared to the previous season.
According to the Agriculture Ministry’s latest Crop Weather Watch Report, released here on Friday, wheat has been sown till now on 262.66 lakh hectares (lh), against 262.14 lh during the same period last year.RECORD WHEAT SEEN
Acreages have gone up in Uttar Pradesh (from 86.85 lh to 89.38 lh), Punjab (34.88 to 34.95), Haryana (24.65 to 24.80), Rajasthan (20.31 to 21.70) and Bihar (19.21 to 20.08), while trailing behind in Madhya Pradesh (35.67 to 33.90), Gujarat (13.53 to 11.44) and Maharashtra (10.49 to 8.79).
If current trends hold and no abnormal rise in temperatures take place in March, it is likely that the 2008-09 wheat crop would even surpass last year’s record 78.40 million tonnes (mt).
In rapeseed-mustard, 2007-08 saw output falling to a dismal 5.80 mt, following the preceding two years’ bumper levels of 7.44 mt and 8.13 mt, respectively.
But this year, buoyed by good price realisations and improved soil moisture conditions due to late south-west monsoon rains in September, farmers have till now brought 65.89 lh under the crop, against 57.52 lh covered in the corresponding period of 2007-08.
Area has risen in Rajasthan (24.03 lh to 28.03 lh), Uttar Pradesh (8.02 to 8.77), Madhya Pradesh (5.36 to 7.91), Haryana (4.99 to 6.25) and West Bengal (4.25 to 4.50), while dipping marginally in Gujarat (3.41 to 2.94).GRAM SOWING UP
Likewise, progressive sowing of gram has increased from 76.31 lh to 82.68 lh this year, led by Madhya Pradesh (from 24.19 lh to 27.12 lh), Rajasthan (12.84 to 13.89), Uttar Pradesh (6.03 to 8.59), and Karnataka (7.07 to 8.41). However, lower acreages have been reported from Maharashtra (11.75 to 10.49) and Andhra Pradesh (6.25 to 6.20).
Acreages are higher relative to last year for the bulk of other rabi cereals (maize, jowar, barley, rice), oilseeds (sunflower, groundnut, sesamum) and pulses (lentil, peas).
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