<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">The Government has said that the sowing area of pulses and coarse cereals has increased this year as compared to last year. Union Agriculture Ministry today released data on the progress of area coverage under summer crops. The sowing area of pulses stood at 19 lakh 86 thousand hectares so far against around 19 lakh hectares last year. The sowing area of coarse cereals has also increased from 11 lakh 73 thousand hectares to 12 lakh 10 thousand hectares.</span></p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br />''</p>''<p style="margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #222222;">On the other hand, the sowing area of rice has decreased from 30 lakh 33 thousand hectares to 28 lakh 51 thousand hectares. The overall sowing of summer crops is marginally down at 70 lakh 74 thousand hectares this year as against over 72 lakh hectares during the same period last year.</span></p>