According to a weekly update released by the Agriculture Ministry, paddy sowing was down 4 per cent at 31.05 lh from 32.42 lh
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,The sowing under summer (Zaid season) crops, which will be completed this week, reached 86.02 lakh hectares (lh) as of May 22, which is 3 per cent more than the 83.50 lh reported in the year-ago period. Zaid crop is grown before kharif sowing and after rabi harvest.Except for paddy and moong (green gram), the area under all other crops has gone up this year. The announcement of a bonus over and above the MSP for the urad crop (black matpe) by the Madhya Pradesh government seems to have worked as farmers have planted more area under it. The overall acreage under summer moong, in which Madhya Pradesh is the top producer in the country, has reported a dip.According to a weekly update released by the Agriculture Ministry, paddy sowing was down 4 per cent at 31.05 lh from 32.42 lh, while nutri/coarse cereals areas were 12 per cent up at 16.01 lh against 14.25 lh a year ago. Among the nutri/coarse cereals, maize area is 18 per cent higher at 10 lh from 8.5 lh, while bajra has reached 5.4 lh against 5.2 lh. Ragi is higher at 0.22 lh from 0.16 lh, and jowar at 0.37 lh from 0.36 lh, the data show.Pulses area risesArea under summer pulses reached 27.91 lh from 27.26 lh, in which coverage of moong was reported at 23.01 lh, a notch below 23.49 lh year-ago and urad up 29 per cent at 4.60 lh from 3.58 lh. The key growers of summer pulses are Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. Summer pulses are key to offset when there is a fall in Kharif crops. In 2025-26, Kharif pulses production has been estimated at 7.63 mt from 7.73 mt in 2024-25, and Rabi-grown pulses at 16.24 mt against 15.23 mt.Announcing the bonus of ₹600 per quintal over and above its MSP of Rs 7,800/quintal for urad, the Madhya Pradesh government had said that the step was aimed at encouraging farmers to shift from moong during the summer (Zaid) season.Oilseeds area in this summer season is also higher at 11.04 lh from 9.58 lh, and it includes groundnut at 5.51 lh from 4.20 lh and sesamum at 5.07 lh from 4.96 lh.The government has fixed a target of 19.67 million tonnes (mt) of foodgrains production from summer crops, which include 12.15 mt of rice, 4 mt of maize, 1.14 mt of nutri cereals and 2.39 mt of pulses in the 2025-26 crop year (July-June). The target for bajra (millet) is set at 1.10 mt, urad (black gram) at 0.32 mt, moong at 2.07 mt and oilseeds at 1.37 mt.Collating data separatelyLast year, the summer season’s production was 19.11 mt of foodgrains — 11.28 mt of rice, 3.85 mt of maize, 1.26 mt of nutri cereals and 2.72 mt of pulses. Besides, the output of bajra was 1.23 mt, urad was 0.35 mt, moong was 2.37 mt, and oilseeds were 1.33 mt.Summer crop areas were earlier included under the kharif or rabi season, but the government, a few years ago, decided to start collating the data separately. The last five years’ average coverage under summer crops is 75.37 lakh hectares, whereas the area reached an all-time high of 83.92 lh in 2024-25. The share of summer crops was 5.3 per cent in the total foodgrains production of 357.73 mt in 2024-25.Published on May 26, 2026
