Facebook Pixel Code

Dec sees marginal dip in wheat area

Wheat acreage fell marginally in December 30 from a year earlier, although conducive weather so far still raises hopes of a bumper output of the grain for a third consecutive year.

Wheat acreage fell marginally in December 30 from a year earlier, although conducive weather so far still raises hopes of a bumper output of the grain for a third consecutive year.

Wheat acreage dipped to 27.64 million hectares until December 30, compared with 27.79 million hectares a year earlier, according to the latest official data. Winter crops are planted from October and harvested from March.

Winter paddy areas, however, went up to 4,13,000 hectares, compared with 3,49,000 hectares during the review period. Paddy is primarily a summer crop, although some quantities are also grown in winter as well.

Good sowing and conducive weather will likely boost wheat output in the crop year through June 2012 beyond the last year?s record level of 85.93 million tonne (mt), sources said, helping the country meet its grain output target of 245 mt during 2011-12.

Higher grains production will give the government adequate room to implement the proposed food security act that aims to widen its subsidised grain sales to 75% of rural and a half of urban households, for which it needs over 60 mt of grains annually.

Higher grains output will help curb food inflation that has recently slowed down after remaining stubbornly high for more than two years, forcing the Reserve Bank to choke credit to check money flow into the system.

Annual food inflation slumped to a near six-year low of 0.42% for the week ended December 17, 2011 ? the lowest level of food inflation since April 2006 ? owing to the fall in prices of onions, potatoes and vegetables.

However, the sowing of winter coarse cereals, oilseeds and pulses are trailing last year?s level, reinforcing apprehensions that the country may have to import more to meet growing domestic demand.

Coarse cereals sowing declined 6% to 5.51 million hectares until December 30, while oilseed areas are down 6.3% to 7.92 million hectares. Pulses coverage fell marginally to 13.85 million hectares from 14.02 million hectares.

Lower planting jeopardised the agriculture ministry?s initiatives to encourage farmers to sow more of the crops this winter to make up for a shortfall in summer areas.

Some farmers have shifted to wheat planting this winter anticipating better returns due to a nearly 10% hike in the benchmark procurement price of the grain to R1,285 per quintal.

India ? the world?s largest buyer of pulses and edible oil usually imports less than a fifth of annual pulses requirement and around half of its vegetable oil consumption to meet the requirement.

The pulse imports may increase by up to 3,00,000 tonne in the current financial year due to growing population and a lower-than-expected summer harvest, according to industry sources.

India cut imports of the protein-rich staple by more than a third to around 2.7 mt in the 2010-11 as farmers, encouraged by subsidised supplies of high-yielding seeds and other inputs available through various government schemes, planted more of the crop. It produced a record 18.09 mt of pulses in the crop year through June 2011 after almost a decade of stagnant output at below 15 million tonne.

Key pulse prices have remained steady at around R70 for nearly a year now due to the bumper harvest during 2010-11.

Get live Share Market updates, Stock Market Quotes, and the latest India News and business news on Financial Express. Download the Financial Express App for the latest finance news.

First published on: 02-01-2012 at 00:55 IST
Market Data
Market Data
Today’s Most Popular Stories ×