Mustard and chana (gram) are leading the early trends of rabi sowing this year, with farmers completing planting in over seven lakh hectares in Gujarat so far.
The Center has been procuring gram and mustard from farmers regularly for the last five years at Minimum Support Price (MSP) and the area under these two important crops is increasing gradually.
The latest state government data shows that farmers had completed sowing of mustard in 1.71 lakh hectares by November 15. This is significantly higher than the 1.30 lakh hectares brought under oilseeds crop during the corresponding period last year, the data further reveals. This is more than 88 per cent of the average mustard area of 1.94 lakh hectare for the last three years.
The area under mustard so far this season is more than 24 per cent of the total planted area in the state, with six districts contributing about 1.50 lakh hectares out of 1.71 lakh hectares of mustard this season.
Most of the mustard area is reported from the northern Gujarat districts of Banaskantha (1.12 lakh ha), Mehsana (18,600 ha), Patan (16,600 ha), Sabarkantha (11,000 ha), Gandhinagar (800 ha), and Aravalli (400 ha). ) These six districts form the traditional bed for this rabi crop, and contribute 88 percent of the state’s total mustard area. In fact, Banaskantha alone accounts for about 66 per cent of the state’s total mustard area.
Mustard requires very little water, which makes it the preferred choice of farmers in northern Gujarat where irrigation facilities are not easily available.
In eight districts of central Gujarat and 11 districts of Saurashtra, mustard has been sown in 2,400 hectares (ha) and 1,200 hectares respectively, while in six districts of south Gujarat, no farmer has sown the crop so far this season. Is.
Chana is another crop whose sown area has already crossed one lakh hectare in the first three weeks of sowing. Farmers have completed sowing of gram in 1.33 lakh hectares. However, it is less by about one lakh hectare as compared to 2.32 lakh hectare in the corresponding week of last year.
Chana is grown mostly in Saurashtra and Central Gujarat regions and groundnut crop is sown after harvesting. Therefore, sowing intensifies towards the end of November and is reflected in the state’s weekly sowing data in early December, state agriculture department officials said.
The 11 Saurashtra districts so far account for 99,800 hectares or 74 per cent of the total gram acreage. At this point of sowing, Junagadh is the largest gram district where farmers have sown the crop in 20,500 hectares. It is followed by Amreli (19,400 ha), Porbandar (15,400 ha), Jamnagar (13,700 ha) and Gir Somnath (10,300 ha). Pathan (12,400 ha). There has also been a good sowing of gram in Ahmedabad (8,500).
Farmers have also completed planting of sugarcane in 79,898 hectares, wheat in 49,791 hectares, tobacco in 19,735 hectares. Maize has been sown in 18,835 hectares so far; Cumin (jeera), another important rabi crop in Gujarat, has been sown in 8,637 hectares, according to the data.
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