Rice acreage in India has gone down 3.73% to 41.01 lakh hectare during rabi season 2006-07 compared to last season's 42.60 lakh hectare, according to the Directorate of Rice Development (DRD).
Transplanting of rabi rice is over and the states in which transplanting was less as compared to the previous year were Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, as per the crop prospects report of the DRD released on April 5, 2007.

As per the Directorate of Economics and Statistics' (DES) report, in Andhra Pradesh, the cultivated area is estimated to be lower at 12.68 lakh hectare from target area of 13.15 lakh hectare as against the normal area of 10.18 lakh hectare. In West Bengal, the normal area under rabi season is 14.06 lakh hectare, out of which 14 lakh hectare has been covered. In Assam, the cultivated area under rice is estimated higher at 3.20 lakh hectare from the previous season's 3.10 lakh hectare as against the normal area of 3.22 lakh hectare which is marginally down.

Transplanting of rabi rice is over in Orissa and the area under rice has increased to 3 lakh hectare from the normal area of 2.37 lakh hectare. It is also higher from the target area of 2.8 lakh hectare, sources said.

In Tamil Nadu, transplanting of summer rice is nearing completion and the total area covered under kharif rice is 20.87 lakh hectare, out of which 18.59 lakh hectare would be treated as kharif and 2.28 lakh hectare as rabi as per the DES report.

In order to enhance procurement of rice during kharif marketing seasons 2006-07, an incentive bonus of Rs 40 per quintal for the paddy crop of 2006-07 has been announced. During the kharif marketing season (KMS) of 2005-06, rice procurement was higher by around 3 million tonne at 27.7 million tonne compared to the same period last year.