Indian Rabi Seeding Finishing Up

VANCOUVER - Feb 9/08 - SNS -- Seeding of this year's rabi season crops is virtually complete in India. Pulse crop area ended up declining from 13.899 to 13.328 million hectares. Land in gram or desi type chickpeas sank from 8.372 to 8.027 million hectares. If the decline translates into smaller production, imports of desi chickpeas from Australia and field peas from Canada and Australia will remain strong through the much of the coming year.

India's Agriculture Ministry reported wheat area dropped from 28.214 to 27.689 million hectares. Winter rice seedings slipped from 2.174 to 2.149 million hectares.

Coarse cereals have been sown in 6.787 million hectares, compared to 7.04 million last year. Barley and maize area is up, with farmers planting 757,000 hectares of barley and 1.035 million hectares of corn or maize.

Rabi oilseed area plunged from 9.701 to 8.93 million hectares. Mustard/rapeseed coverage has reached 5.981 million hectares, compared to 6.668 million last year.