Early sowing is helping India to continue witnessing a higher coverage in rabi crops compared with the year-ago period. Now, with an early onset of winter with cold wave gripping many parts of the northern India, farmers are expecting the yield to improve this year, helping the government to achieve its production target.
The total area under all agriculture crops was 10.3 per cent higher at 208.19 lakh hectare (lh) as of November 14 against 188.73 lh a year ago. The area under barley is up by 50 per cent. The total area was 27 per cent higher as of November 7. Last year, the total area under all rabi crops was 663.04 lh and the foodgrains production was a record high of 167.22 million tonnes (mt) and that of oilseeds 13.57 mt.
