India Seeks 15.5 Million MT Pulse Harvest

VANCOUVER - Aug 31/07 - SNS -- India wants total food grain production in 2007-08 to reach 221.5 million MT, including 15.5 million MT of pulses and another 30 million MT of oilseeds.

Reaching that goal is being helped by the fact kharif or monsoon season seeded area remains well above year earlier levels, according to Agriculture Ministry. Pulse area now stands at 11.53 million hectares, up from 10.83 million at this time last year.

Kharif rice area now stands at 33.7 million hectares, up slightly from 33.418 million at this time last year. Seeding is wrapping up in Gujarat, Haryana and Rajasthan. Coarse cereal grain area now stands at 20.742 million hectares, up from 19.587 million at this time last year. Corn area has advanced from 6.92 to 7.35 million hectares.

Oilseed seedings now total 5.104 million hectares, up from 4.832 million last year. Soybean area has advanced from 7.98 to 8.72 million hectares; while groundnut seedings have jumped from 4.52 to 5.16 million hectares.

Cotton is up from 8.614 million at 9.02 million hectares, including 5.33 million hectares of Bt cotton. Sugarcane area is up from 4.832 to 5.104 million hectares; and jute area is down from 818,000 to 789,000 hectares.

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