Early start to Rabi sowing helps increase area by 15% till Oct end
Total sowing area under all rabi crops has reached 75.8 lakh hectares (lh) as of October 31, against 65.9 lh in the year-ago period, up by 15 per cent. Barring maize, paddy and jowar, the acreage of all other winter-grown crops is higher as per preliminary reports received from States.
Sowing of wheat, the key rabi season’s cereal, is higher at 3.3 lh as of October 31 against 2.3 lh a year ago. Similarly, chana is up at 14.9 lh from 12.1 lh, masur (lentil) is also higher at 2.6 lh from 1.9 lh, taking the total pulses area to 20.8 lh, up by 26 per cent from 16.5 lh.
Rabi season’s oilseeds have been sown in 42.3 lh, up by 13.1 per cent from 37.4 lh and it included mustard in 41.7 lh from 37.4 lh.
The area under jowar, which is majorly grown in Kharif and also in winter season in some parts, has reached 2.7 lh, a tad lower from 2.8 lh year-ago. Similarly, maize acreage at 2.1 lh is behind year-ago’s 2.2 lh and that of paddy reached 3.7 lh against 4.5 lh year-ago.
The government has fixed the production target of 119 million tonnes (mt) for wheat, 15.86 mt for rice, 14.5 mt for maize, 11.8 mt for chana, 1.9 mt for masur, 13.9 mt for mustard and 2.05 mt for barley during current Rabi season. The acreage of crops is the key factor to determine production as farmers normally select crops which command higher prices in the market ahead of the sowing season.
In the total foodgrains target of 362.20 mt set for 2024-25 crop year (July-June), the contribution of Rabi season’s foodgrains is set to be 171.14 mt, or more than 47 per cent.
Meanwhile, the fertiliser ministry on Monday issued a statement saying it has built adequate buffer stocks of urea for the Rabi season, which began from October 1, with help of imports. The overall urea stock has increased from 48.64 lakh tonnes (lt) as on October 1 to 68.85 lt as on October 31.
India’s urea import, which is controlled by the government, has more than doubled to 58.62 lt during April-October this year (compared to 24.76 lt year-ago) to meet domestic demand, the government said claiming it ensured adequate supply of fertilizers to farmers in the Kharif sowing season.
Further, imports of 17.5 lt are already lined up for November and December, it said.
The availability of urea was 230.53 lt, as against the projected requirement of 185.39 lt and sales at 193.20 lt in Kharif. “This reflects sufficient all-India availability of urea,” the ministry said, adding that farmers have used more urea of 4.08 lt in Kharif 2025, compared with Kharif 2024.
Published on November 3, 2025
