January 19, 2009

India's wheat planting area during the Oct. 1-Jan 15 period rose to 27.4 million hectares from 27.2 million hectares a year earlier on favourable weather conditions, the federal government said Friday (January 16).

In India, sowing of wheat starts in early November and the crop is harvested in March.

The sowing of the winter-sown crops is almost over, a senior official said.

The total is planted in oilseed in the October 1 to January 14 period rose to 9.1 million hectares from 8.6 million hectares a year ago, the government said.

India's rapeseed acreage between October 1 to January 14 rose to 6.6 million hectares from 5.9 million hectares a year ago.

The area cultivated in corn increased to 1.06 million hectares for the October 1-January 15 period, compared with 1.01 million hectares a year earlier.