New Delhi, India: Farmers are encouraged to grow more wheat in the current Rabi season by favourable weather conditions and expectations of remunerative prices, and India may set a new record for the seventh consecutive year, according to a top agricultural scientist, who expects wheat production to exceed 112 million tonnes in the current crop year 2021-22.
According to Dr. Gyanendra Pratap Singh, Director of the Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research (IIWBR), the meteorological conditions are favourable for wheat farming, with an outstanding planting season currently underway.
"Rains experienced in the month of October may have harmed the early seeded crops," he said, adding that "certain regions under mustard seed and chickpea may shift to wheat this year." According to the India Meteorological Department, several wheat-growing regions, notably Madhya Pradesh, India's second-largest wheat producer after Uttar Pradesh, received rainfall in October as the southwest monsoon receded late this year, making it the seventh-most delayed retreat since 1975. (IMD).
This year, wheat-producing states experienced strong monsoon rainfall, which aided farmers in sowing because the soil was moist and there was no need to irrigate the field in numerous areas before sowing.
Rabi sowing in progress, wheat and oilseeds leading the way
