Excess rain, floods may dent India’s gains from higher kharif acreage
Sowing areas under all kharif crops have reached the normal area of about 1,097 lh
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With about 19 lakh hectares (lh) area sown by farmers under different crops during the past week against 34 lh in the previous week), the lead over the year-ago period in the current season further narrowed this week. It slipped to 3 per cent as of August 29 from over 5 per cent as of August 1. Agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan reviewed the crop situation, following reports of crop damage in several States due to excess rainfall as well as floods.
Sowing areas under all kharif crops have reached the normal area of about 1,097 lh. According to latest data released by the Agriculture Ministry, overall kharif sowing reached 1,092.87 lh as of August 29 from 1,060.36 lh a year ago.
The area coverage under kharif season’s main cereal paddy reached 431.96 lh from 405.34 lh a year ago, which is 6.6 per cent higher while that of pulses reached 114.46 lh from 113.47 lh a year ago.
Urad up, arhar down
In the pulses category, urad (black matpe) acreage was up 6.3 per cent at 22.35 lh from 21.03 lh and moong (green gram) acreage up by 0.4 per cent at 34.11 lh from 33.96 lh. Arhar (pigeon pea) area trailed by 1.7 per cent at 44.61 lh from 45.37 lh year-ago.
The coverage of nutri/coarse cereals reached 189.67 lh from 178.48 lh, up by 6.3 per cent in which maize area is up by 11.8 per cent at 94 lh(84.07 lh a year ago), but Shree Anna (millets) areas were almost flat – jowar (sorghum) at 14.01 lh against 14 lh a year ago and bajra (millet) at 67.64 lh against 67.72 lh and ragi up by 10 per cent at 9.24 lh from 8.39 lh.
Oilseeds area continues to trail at 185.17 lh from 190.27 lh, down by 2.7 per cent. Soyabean acreage slipped 4.2 per cent to 120.28 lh from 125.25 lh. Groundnut acreage was a tad lower at 46.76 lh from 46.98 lh. Sunflower area was also down by 8.6 per cent at 0.64 lh from 0.70 lh a year ago.
Sugarcane area gains
Cotton acreage, too, dropped 2.4 per cent to 108.77 lh from 111.39 lh. Both sugarcane and jute planting has been completed and provisional data show that the cane area reached at 57.31 lh against 55.68 lh, whereas jute coverage is 5.54 against 5.73 lh.
Meanwhile, Chouhan said in a statement that he would visit Punjab, where over 6 lakh acres area have been affected by floods, as per preliminary assessment.
Published on September 1, 2025
