- Kharif sowing trails by 16% due to weak monsoon.
- Rice, pulses, oilseeds, cotton acreage significantly decreased.
- Monsoon briefly improved early-July, but now weakened again.
India’s kharif sowing season is running behind last year’s pace, with the total area planted under summer crops down 16 per cent year-on-year as a weak and uneven monsoon disrupts the agricultural calendar.
The area under kharif crops stood at 531.25 lakh hectares as of July 10, compared with 632.69 lakh hectares during the corresponding period last year, according to the latest Agriculture Ministry data cited by PTI.
The sowing gap, however, has narrowed from a week earlier, when kharif acreage was trailing the previous year’s level by 21 per cent. An active spell of rainfall in parts of the country during the first 10 days of July helped reduce some of the deficit, although the overall planting season remains behind schedule.
Kharif Sowing Covers 48% Of Normal Area
Kharif crop planting typically gathers pace with the onset of the south-west monsoon in June. This year, however, weak rainfall linked to the El Niño effect has delayed field operations in several key agricultural regions, the Financial Express reported.
According to the Agriculture Ministry data, sowing till July 10 covered around 48 per cent of the normal kharif area of 110 million hectares. At the same point last year, more than 57 per cent of the normal area had already been planted amid average monsoon rainfall.
Rice, pulses, oilseeds and cotton are among the major crops witnessing lower acreage so far this season.
Paddy Sowing Still Trails Last Year’s Level
Rice, India’s major kharif crop, has been planted across 114.69 lakh hectares so far, 8.63 per cent lower than the 125.53 lakh hectares recorded during the same period last year, Agriculture Ministry data showed.
The average area under paddy cultivation is around 41.2 million hectares.
The latest numbers, however, indicate some improvement. A week earlier, rice acreage was around 13 per cent below the 2025 level, according to the Financial Express report.
Lower paddy coverage has been linked to deficient rainfall in eastern India, particularly Bihar and Jharkhand.
Also Read : US Attacks Iran For Third Straight Night: Sensex 500 Points Down, Nifty Falls As Oil Prices Jump
Pulses Acreage Falls More Than 23%
The sowing gap is sharper in pulses, where acreage has declined 23.31 per cent year-on-year to 56.63 lakh hectares from 73.85 lakh hectares.
Among individual pulse crops, arhar or tur has been planted across 19.54 lakh hectares, compared with 28.03 lakh hectares in the year-ago period.
Urad acreage stood at 9.34 lakh hectares against 13.29 lakh hectares last year, while moong coverage declined to 21.52 lakh hectares from 24.08 lakh hectares.
The delay in tur sowing has been attributed to the late arrival of the monsoon in Maharashtra and Karnataka, while scanty rainfall across central India until the end of June also weighed on pulses acreage.
Active July Rains Bring Some Relief To Central India
Rainfall conditions improved across the rain-fed core zone of central India between July 1 and July 10.
The rainfall deficit in the region narrowed to 8 per cent by Monday from more than 50 per cent at the end of June, according to the Financial Express report.
The improvement is expected to support pulses and oilseeds planting over the coming weeks.
An official cited in the report said kharif sowing could increase sharply over the next two weeks as most parts of India, barring the east and north-east, have received adequate rainfall this month.
Oilseeds And Soybean Acreage Remain Lower
Oilseeds sowing also continues to trail last year’s levels. Total acreage declined 21 per cent to 117.83 lakh hectares from 149.18 lakh hectares in the corresponding period a year earlier, according to Agriculture Ministry data cited by PTI.
Within the oilseeds category, soybean acreage fell 16 per cent to 90.51 lakh hectares from 107.72 lakh hectares.
The lower planting of soybean and groundnut has been linked to inadequate rainfall in central India, particularly Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, during June.
Cotton Sowing Down 15.33%
Cotton, another major kharif cash crop, has also recorded a decline in acreage.
The area under cotton stood at 79.54 lakh hectares, down 15.33 per cent from 93.95 lakh hectares during the corresponding period last year.
Coverage under coarse cereals fell 22.47 per cent to 98.69 lakh hectares from 127.30 lakh hectares.
Sugarcane, meanwhile, was among the few crops to record an increase in acreage. The area under the crop edged up to 57.58 lakh hectares from 56.72 lakh hectares.
Jute and mesta acreage also increased marginally to 6.28 lakh hectares from 6.16 lakh hectares.
Also Read : EXCLUSIVE | ‘I Will Drag You To Court’: Nitin Gadkari On Claims Regarding His Son Nikhil Gadkari’s Company
Monsoon Intensity Weakens Again
The improvement in rainfall during early July has been followed by a weakening of monsoon intensity over the past few days.
India’s cumulative rainfall between June 1 and July 13 stood at 222.4 mm, 19.4 per cent below the long-period average, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The rainfall shortfall remains in the ‘deficient’ category.
The IMD has forecast ‘subdued’ rainfall activity over the plains of north-west India, as well as west, central and south Peninsular India, during the next six to seven days.
