India’s kharif sowing deficit shrinks to less than 3%; 81% of normal area covered

The sowing area in the ongoing kharif season has reached 894.22 lh as of July 31 compared with 920.72 lh in the year-ago period, down by 2.9 per cent
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PTI

Farmers have planted kharif crops in nearly 107 lakh hectares (lh) during the July 25-31 week, aided by a 23 per cent surplus in rain from the previous week that created suitable soil conditions for sowing, compared to 94.5 lh a year ago. The higher sowing in the past week has helped to further narrow the overall deficit to less than 3 per cent. The deficit was 5 per cent until July 24.

The sowing area in the ongoing kharif season has reached 894.22 lh as of July 31 compared with 920.72 lh in the year-ago period, down by 2.9 per cent, the Agriculture Ministry said in its weekly update on Monday. The current coverage is 81 per cent of the season’s normal area of 1,104.46 lh.

The Kharif season’s main cereal paddy is down by 2.2 per cent at 301.49 lh against 308.39 lh a year ago. The government has set a production target of 123.15 million tonnes (mt) of rice for kharif 2026, and there may not be any significant shortfall even if acreage ends up a notch below 2025 due to higher area coverage in major growing states.

Arhar area down 9%

The area under all pulses reached 95.18 lh against 101.6 lh, while that of oilseeds was 172.32 lh against 171.13 lh. The deficit in pulses has further reduced to 6.3 per cent from 7.5 per cent until the previous week. Oilseeds acreage for the first time this season exceeded the year-ago level as it was 2 per cent deficient until July 24. Among the 28.92 mt of oilseeds production target fixed by the government for the current season, soyabean has been aimed at 14.85 mt and groundnut at 11.35 mt.

Among pulses, arhar sowing reached 34.91 lh, down 9 per cent from 38.44 lh; moong (green gram) was at 29.22 lh from 32.23 lh, and urad (black gram) rose to 21.08 lh from 19.04 lh. In oilseeds, soybean was down to 117.68 lh from 118.52 lh, and groundnut to 43.06 lh from 41.9 lh. Cotton acreage is now 2 per cent lower at 103.54 lh from 106.06 lh, while sugarcane sowing has been completed and it was reported at 57.58 lh against 56.72 lh a year ago. Jute and mesta coverage too is over and was at 6.33 lh from 6.21 lh a year ago, data show.

The coverage of nutri/coarse cereals has been reported 7.5 per cent lower at 157.77 lh against 170.6 lh. Jowar area reached 12.16 lh against 12.61 lh a year ago, whereas bajra dipped to 57.44 lh from 61.64 lh, ragi at 1.87 lh from 2.8 lh and maize at 83.56 lh from 90.15 lh.

The overall monsoon deficit, which was 35 per cent (as per revised data) in June, has now been reported at 12 per cent during June 1-August 3, India Meteorological Department (IMD) data shows. The rainfall during July 1-31 was 1 per cent above normal.

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 3, 2026