On the one hand farmers who had planted Pusa Basmati 1509 rice in April have harvested and sold their crops whereas there are farmers of paddy who still continue to plant in current Kharif season. With about 34 lakh hectare (lh) covered during the past week (as against 44 lh in the previous week) and the lead over year-ago period in current season further narrows to 3.4 per cent as of August 22 from 3.7 per cent until August 15, the government is keeping a close watch on likely yield.
Sowing areas under all Kharif crops have reached near 98 per cent of the normal area of about 1,097 lh so far. According to the latest data released by the Agriculture Ministry, overall Kharif sowing reached 1073.98 lh as of August 22 from 1038.58 lh year-ago. The season’s acreage was 5.1 per cent higher as of August 1.
The area coverage under Kharif season’s main cereal paddy has reached 420.41 lh from 390.80 lh a year ago, which is 7.6 per cent higher while that of pulses reached 112.77 lh from 1118.42 lh year-ago.
In the pulses category, urad (black matpe) acreage up 6.9 per cent at 21.71 lh from 20.31 lh and moong (green gram) acreage up by 1.3 per cent at 33.95 lh from 33.50 lh. Arhar (pigeon peas) area trailed by 1.8 per cent at 43.98 lh from 44.77 lh year-ago.
The coverage of nutri/coarse cereals has reached at 187.12 lh from 175.93 lh, up by 6.4 per cent in which maize area is up by 11.7 per cent at 93.34 lh from 83.58 lh, but Shree Anna (millets) areas are almost flat — Jowar (sorghum) at 13.90 lh against 13.98 lh year-ago and bajra (millet) at 67.20 lh against 66.90 lh and ragi at 7.99 lh from 7.27 lh.
Oilseeds area continues to trail and now reached 182.38 lh from 187.64 lh, down by 2.8 per cent. Soyabean acreage has slipped 3.8 per cent to 120.11 lh from 124.88 lh and that of groundnut acreage dipped by 2.7 per cent to 45.30 lh from 46.56 lh. Sunflower area is also lower by 9 per cent at 0.63 lh from 0.69 lh year-ago.
Cotton acreage too dropped 2.6 per cent to 108.47 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 this year whereas jute coverage is 5.54.
Published on August 26, 2025