NEW DELHI
\nIndian farmers have planted wheat on 8.6 million hectares since Oct. 1, when the current sowing season began, down nearly 5.5% from a year earlier, sources said on Friday.
\nThe Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers\u2019 Welfare, which will keep updating the provisional crop sowing figures as it gathers more information from state governments, expects wheat area to go up in the next few weeks, the sources said.
\nThe planting figures are also subject to revision depending on weather conditions.
\nWheat planting is lower due to a delayed rice harvest, the sources said.
\nBut higher prices would encourage farmers to bring in more area under wheat this year, trade and industry officials say.
\nIn India, the world\u2019s biggest wheat producer after China, the staple is mainly produced in the northern states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and the central state of Madhya Pradesh.
\nIndia grows only one wheat crop in a year, with planting in October and November, and harvests from March.
\nNew Delhi was forced to ban wheat exports in May last year, after a sudden rise in temperatures in March cut crop yields.
\nDespite the ban, wheat prices have soared, prompting the government to release state reserves into the open market.
\nSowing of rapeseed, the main winter-planted oilseed was almost unchanged at 6.9 million hectares.
\nHigher rapeseed output will help India, the world\u2019s biggest cooking oil importer, to cut expensive purchases of edible oils.
\nIndia annually spends more than $15 billion to import palm oil mainly from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand and soyoil and sunflower oil from Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine.
\nPolicymakers have voiced concerns about India\u2019s higher vegetable oil import bill.
\nIndia\u2019s imports of palm oil and sunflower oil in the year to October 2023 surged by 24% and 54%, respectively, to record highs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW DELHI Indian farmers have planted wheat on 8.6 million hectares since Oct. 1, when the current sowing season began, down nearly 5.5% from a year earlier, sources said on Friday. The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers\u2019 Welfare, which will keep updating the provisional crop sowing figures as it gathers more information from state governments, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368708,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-368686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n