With 90% of normal area covered, India’s kharif crops sowing up 4% year-on-year

The sowing area during the week-ended August 8 was 63 lh, as against 103 in the previous week.
| Photo Credit:
ARUN KULKARNI

Helped by continuous surplus rains in most parts of the country after mid-June, farmers have covered over 90 per cent of the normal area of about 1,097 lakh hectares (lh) so far in the ongoing kharif season, the Agriculture Ministry said.

Experts are hoping for a normal yield, despite some reports of crop damage in some States. However, if there is excess rain during pre-harvest period in September, standing crops may face the risk of disease.

The sowing area during the week-ended August 8 was 63 lh, as against 103 in the previous week.

Urad up, arhar down

According to the latest data released by the Agriculture Ministry, overall kharif sowing is 4 per cent higher at 995.63 lh as of August 8 against 957.15 lh a year ago. The season’s acreage is 5.1 per cent higher as of August 1. The India Meteorological Department data showed that the monsoon rainfall was 6 per cent higher than normal during June-July.

The area coverage under kharif season’s main cereal, paddy, was 364.8 lh against 325.36 lh a year ago, which is 12.1 per cent higher while pulses acreage was a tad higher at 106.68 lh from 106.52 lh a year ago.

In the pulses category, urad (black matpe) acreage reached 20.15 lh, up 1.2 per cent from 19.91 lh and arhar (pigeon peas) area trailed by 4.7 per cent at 40.86 lh from 42.87 lh a year ago. But moong (green gram) acreage was up by 2.7 per cent at 33.21 lh from 32.33 lh. The moong area was 90 per cent up until July 11 and the lead has narrowed substantially in past month.

The coverage of nutri/coarse cereals was 178.73 lh against 170.96 lh, up by 4.5 per cent, with the maize area up by 10.5 per cent at 91.89 lh from 83.15 lh. But Shree Anna (millets) area was lower. Jowar (sorghum) acreage was down at 13.69 lh from 13.96 lh, while that of bajra (millet) was at 64.86 lh from 65.76 lh and ragi was at 4.41 lh from 4.15 lh.

No State-wise data

Oilseeds area dropped to 175.61 lh from 182.43 lh, down by 3.7 per cent. Soyabean acreage too has slipped 3.8 per cent to 119.51 lh from 124.24 lh and that of groundnut acreage by 4.1 per cent to 43.23 lh from 45.06 lh. Sunflower area is also lower at 0.61 lh against 0.68 lh a year ago.

Cotton acreage too dropped 3.2 per cent to 106.96 lh from 110.49 lh. The Agriculture Ministry did not share statewise details of sowing areas and hence it cannot be ascertained how the progress has been in different regions.

Sugarcane and jute planting has nearly been completed, and provisional data show cane area was 57.31 lh this year whereas jute coverage is 5.54, data show.

The precipitation between June 1 and August 11 was 545.6 mm against its long period average (LPA) of 543.9 mm. During this period, only the east and north-east India was 17 per cent deficient, while south peninsula received 1 per cent below normal rainfall. But, central meteorological subdivision comprising Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat was 4 per cent surplus and north-west region comprising Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh received 16 per cent above normal rainfall.

Published on August 11, 2025