An Agriculture Ministry note claims that the area with wheat and maize cultivation this year is larger than that of 2005-06 in Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh lending hope of higher production of these staple crops. Wheat has been sown in 263.91 lakh hectares (lha) compared to 247.25 lha last year while Maize was 9.86 lha compared to 6.79 lha.

Similarly Rabi rice sown was 8.81 lha compared to 7.79 lha the previous year, coarse cereal has also seen an increase with 66.36 lha (62.42 lha) except for jowar which declined marginally to 47.29 lha. Pulses grew to 124.32 lha (123.6 lha) and oil seeds fell sharply to 90.73 lha (98.89 lha). The sharp drop in oilseeds has been attributed to diversion of are from rape seed and mustard to Bengal gram in Madhya Pradesh and to wheat in Rajasthan and Haryana.