As the sowing of all rabi crops except paddy is coming to a close, farmers’ message is that they will prefer to stick to a crop which is least susceptible to government controls and can provide them with the best price. The rise in the acreage of mustard is more than that of competing crops such as wheat and chana (gram) this year. It may end up a tad lower than 10 million hectares (mh).
According to the Agriculture Ministry’s weekly update released on Friday, the total area under all crops has increased by 2.9 percent to 69.635 mh against 67.697 mh in the year-ago period. The coverage of wheat has gone up by 0.4 percent to 34.113 mh from 33.987 mh a year ago and chana acreage is down by 1.6 percent to 11.091mh from 11.265 mh.
Yield higher too
On the other hand, mustard acreage is up by 7.7 percent at 9.710 mh from 9.018 mh year-ago. Sources said the acreage in the year-ago period is not the actual data, but rather the provisional weekly data collected last year. The actual sowing area under mustard in the entire season in 2021-22 was 8.058 mh after the reconciliation of data, sources said.
“Even if final area reaches at 90 lh this year (after reconciliation), it will be a big increase, compared to only 68-69 mh in 2019-20. Besides, the productivity has also been increasing regularly with the adoption of newer varieties and better crop management practices,” said an Agriculture Ministry official. He said mustard prices are stable for the last two seasons and have ruled above minimum support prices (MSPs) as the government disallowed blending (mixing) of any other edible oil with it.
“Farmers know that mustard rates may be around that level when they harvest the current crop whereas the high prices of wheat may not sustain. Wheat prices could drop to MSP levels when the new crop arrives in mandis as the Centre buys the cereal at that benchmark price,” said S K Singh, an agriculture scientist. The government has fiscal constraints to pay more than MSP and since it is the biggest buyer of wheat, procuring 35-40 percent of annual production, Singh said.
Rates of chana also depend to a large extent on government policy and it has already allowed the import of certain pulses until next year, Singh said.
Paddy area up 33%
Mandi prices of wheat currently rule at $0,32-0,33 per kg in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh whereas mustard is sold at $0,69-0,76 per kg and chana at $0,55-0,64 per kg in these States. The MSP for the current season has been fixed at $0,65/kg in chana, $0,26/kg in wheat and $0,67/kg in mustard.
Traders in Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan, the largest producer with 50 percent share in acreage, are said to have contracted to buy mustard at $0,72-0,74/kg for April delivery.
Meanwhile, rabi-grown paddy acreage has increased by 33.5 percent to 3.154 mh as of January 19 compared with 2.364 mh in the year-ago period. Pulses acreage has risen 0.3 percent to 16.412 mh from 16.370 mh while coarse cereals have increased by 4.2 percent to 5.146 mh from 4.936 mh. In the case of oil seeds, the area has surged to 10.811 mh from 10.040 mh a year ago, registering 7.7 percent growth.
The acreage under masur (lentil) is up by 5.8 percent at 1.846 mh from 1.745 mh and that of maize by 18.9 percent to 2.109 mh from 1.774 mh. The coverage of barley, which is mainly used by the distilleries for bear manufacturing, has jumped 9.5 percent to 0.742 mh from 0.678 mh.
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