December 26, 2011
India's wheat planting areas edge up
Indian farmers planted wheat on 24.4 million hectares until Friday (Dec 23), up from 24 million hectares a year earlier, government data showed.
Wheat sowing usually starts in October, but was delayed by nearly a month this year due to prolonged monsoon rains, which prevented the harvest of summer-sown rice from the cultivation area.
India is targeting wheat output of more than 84 million tonnes in the crop year that started July 1, almost in line with last year's record production of 85.93 million tonnes.