Indian farmers cover 96% of the normal Kharif area as planting window closes

The sowing area in the ongoing Kharif season has reached 1,056.7 lakh hectares as of August 21, compared with 1,072.77 lakh hectares in the same period last year
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th-online Administrator

The sowing area under all kharif crops reached nearly 96 per cent of the season’s normal area of 1,104.46 lakh hectares (lh), while the deficit from the year-ago level narrowed to 0.3 per cent as of August 21. The pace of sowing has increased during the period from August 15 to 21, as farmers race to finish as early as possible before the planting window closes.

Farmers have planted kharif crops in over 40 lh during August 15-21 as against nearly 35 lh a year ago, helping the country to narrow the overall deficit in sowing area which was about 2 per cent until August 7.

The sowing area in the ongoing Kharif season reached 1,056.7 lakh hectares as of August 21, compared with 1,072.77 lakh hectares in the same period last year, the Agriculture Ministry said in its weekly update on Monday.

Paddy down 3.2%

The main cereal for the Kharif season, paddy, is down by 3.2 per cent to 405.10 lakh hectares compared with 418.29 lh a year ago. The deficit was 4.4 per cent until August 7, and narrowing the gap indicates better progress in transplanting during the past fortnight. The government has set a production target of 123.15 million tonnes (mt) of rice for kharif 2026.

Overall, the decline in rice area is mainly attributed to substantial reductions reported in Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, and Jharkhand. The major decreases in area have been reported in Karnataka (3.09 lakh hectares), Telangana (2.45 lakh hectares), Jharkhand (1.88 lh), Madhya Pradesh (1.75 lh), Odisha (1.63 lh), Maharashtra (1.50 lh), Andhra Pradesh (1.26 lh), Tamil Nadu (1.18 lh), Uttar Pradesh (0.70 lh), and Gujarat (0.27 lh).

Pulses gain

The area under all pulses reached 113.63 lh compared to 112.14 lh, while the area for oilseeds was 188.37 lh compared to 188.69 lh. Oilseeds acreage this season exceeded the year-ago level until August 7, with a higher area under soyabean, groundnut, and sesame, but dipped as of August 14 following a drop in soybean acreage. Among the 28.92 mt oilseeds production target set by the government for the current season, soyabean has been targeted at 14.85 mt and groundnut at 11.35 mt.

In oilseeds, soyabean dropped to 121.35 lh from 122.76 lh, but groundnut continued its lead at 48.79 lh, up from 48.22 lh. Among pulses, arhar sowing reached 43.86 lh compared to 43.44 lh a year ago, and urad (black gram) rose to 24.38 lh from 21.72 lh. However, moong (green gram) at 32.68 lh slipped from 33.93 lh.

The coverage of nutri/coarse cereals has been reported as 1.9 per cent lower at 176.36 lh compared with 179.81 lh. The area under jowar reached 13.41 lh, up from 12.61 lh a year ago, while bajra increased to 64.68 lh from 63.33 lh. However, ragi decreased to 4.81 lh, down from 6.60 lh, and maize decreased to 89.51 lh, down from 93.30 lh.

Cotton acreage is now a notch lower at 108.45 lh from 108.73 lh, while Jute and mesta coverage was higher at 6.34 lh from 6.23 lh year-ago, data show.

After revising the sowing area under sugarcane downward on August 7, after a gap of several weeks when showing was shown higher, the ministry continues to conform lower area now at 58.44 lh as of August 21 against 58.87 lh a year ago.

Monsoon deficit 16%

The major decrease in area coverage has been reported in Bihar (0.30 lh) Uttarakhand (0.20 lh), Maharashtra (0.14 lh). But, higher area coverage has been reported in Uttar Pradesh (0.36 lh) and Haryana (0.21 lh).

The overall monsoon rainfall, which was 35 per cent (as per revised data) deficient in June and 1 per cent surplus in July, has been reported at 16 per cent below normal during August 1-23. India Meteorological Department (IMD) data show that monsoon was 13 per cent below normal during June 1-August 24 in which 360 out of 741 districts have reported rainfall deficit of 20 per cent or higher.

The government has fixed a production target of 176.16 mt of foodgrains including 8.4 mt pulses, 31.04 mt maize and 13.56 mt nutri cereals during Kharif 2026.

Published on August 24, 2026