India’s kharif sowing 2% lower than a year ago, but 98% of normal area covered

The area under India’s kharif crops in the ongoing season reached 1,086.31 lakh hectares (lh) as of September 4, compared with 1,104.01 lh in the year-ago period, the Agriculture Ministry said in its weekly update on Monday.

The current year’s progressive area is still 2 per cent less than the season’s normal acreage of 1104.46 lh. “After the country received 86 per cent of its average rainfall during June-August, the monsoon rainfall from September 1 to 7 has been 82 per cent of its long-period average (LPA).

Major rainfall-deficit states in September include Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.” The government has fixed a production target of 176.16 million tonne (mt) of foodgrains for kharif 2026.

It includes 123.15 mt of rice, 8.41 mt of pulses, 31.04 mt of maize, and 13.56 mt of nutri-cereals. Among other categories, the output target has been set at 28.93 mt for oilseeds, 500 mt for sugarcane and 33.6 million bales for cotton (each bale weighs 170 kh).

The pace of sowing was slightly better last week, as farmers planted kharif crops on 15.21 lh during August 28-September 4 against 14 lh a year ago, data show. The main cereal for the Kharif season, paddy, is down by 3.7 per cent to 421.82 lh compared to 438.19 lh a year ago.

The major decreases in area coverage have been reported in Karnataka (by 4.28 lh), Telangana (3.61 lh), Andhra Pradesh (1.91 lh), Jharkhand (1.38 lh), Madhya Pradesh (1.75 lh), Maharashtra (1.15 lh), Tamil Nadu (1.32 lh), and Uttar Pradesh (1.84 lh).

The area under all pulses was higher at 117.13 lh against 115.30 lh and that of oilseeds dipped to 191.99 lh from 193.06 lh. Oilseeds acreage this season exceeded the year-ago level until August 7, with higher area under soyabean, groundnut and sesame, but dipped subsequently.

Soyabean dropped to 121.82 lh from 122.98 lh, and groundnut to 49.61 lh from 50.44 lh. Among pulses, arhar (tur or pigeon pea) sowing reached 45.66 lh against 44.93 lh the year before, and urad (black matpe) rose to 25.15 lh from 22.46 lh.

But moong (green gram) was a tad lower at 33.19 lh from 34.23 lh. The coverage of nutri/coarse cereals has been reported lower at 181.39 lh compared to 182.48 lh last year. The area under jowar reached 13.58 lh, up from 12.61 lh a year ago, and bajra increased to 64.86 lh from 62.87 lh.

However, ragi decreased to 7.60 lh from 8.77 lh, and maize declined to 91.09 lh from 94.08 lh. Cotton acreage is now a notch lower at 109.17 lh from 109.87 lh, while Jute and mesta coverage is higher at 6.34 lh from 6.24 lh year-ago, data show.

After revising the sugarcane sowing area downward on August 7, following several weeks in which the sowing was reported as higher, the ministry continues to confirm a lower area, now at 58.47 lakh hectares (lh) as of August 28, compared to 58.87 lh a year ago.

The major decreases in area coverage have been reported in Bihar (0.30 lh), Uttarakhand (0.20 lh), Maharashtra (0.14 lh), Punjab, and Madhya Pradesh. However, higher area coverage has been reported in Uttar Pradesh (0.36 lh) and Haryana (0.21 lh).