Rabi Area Down 5%

NEW DELHI - Jan 28/08 - SNS -- The amount of pulses planted so far during the rabi or winter cropping season totals 13.07 million hectares, down 5% from the 13.765 million in the ground by this time last year.

India's Agriculture department says that as of January 28 armers have planted 7.931 million hectares of gram or desi type chickpeas, down from 8.308 million at this time last year.

Wheat seedings now total 27.492 million hectares, versus 28.063 million last year. Winter rice area slipped from 1.598 to 1.584 million hectares; while coarse cereal grain area dropped from 6.921 to 6.703 million hectares, including 756,000 hectares of barley and 1.031 million maize or corn.

Rabi oilseed area now totals 8.669 million hectares as compared to 9.61 million hectares in the last rabi. Mustard/rapeseed coverage has reached 5.896 million hectares, compared to 6.663 million hectares by this time last year.

The precipitation outlook for key rabi season pulse producing states remains poor, with the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Prediction forecasting less than 25% of normal precipitation this week and less than two millimeters through February 12. Despite cooler temperatures in many areas, including some overnight frost events this week, soil moisture reserves are expected to continue to decrease.