According to data, the acreage reached 350.85 lakh hectares (lh) as of July 5, which is 32 per cent of the season’s normal area of 1,104.46 lh
| Photo Credit:
K K Mustafah
Aided by a 35 per cent surplus of rain in the first five days of this month, the coverage of the kharif season’s main cereal, paddy, narrowed its deficit to 13 per cent as of July 5 against a shortfall of 25 per cent until June 25. However, the overall acreage of all crops was still lower by 21 per cent against the 23 per cent gap as of June 25.According to data, the acreage reached 350.85 lakh hectares (lh) as of July 5, which is 32 per cent of the season’s normal area of 1,104.46 lh and 21 per cent less compared with 442.80 lh in the year-ago period.After the revival of the monsoon from July 1, the overall deficiency, which was 39 per cent in June, has now been reported at 20 per cent during June 1-6, India Meteorological Department (IMD) data show. As central India and the north-west region have received good rains in the past few days, experts said sowing activities will get a boost and more coverage is expected in the next one week.Cotton 23% lowerThe kharif season’s main cereal paddy has been transplanted on 60.24 lh against 69.30 lh a year ago, while pulses acreage reached 37.15 lh against 47.49 lh and that of oilseeds at 66.31 lh against 109.27 lh. The coverage of nutri/coarse cereals was reported 16 per cent lower at 60.12 lh against 71.86 lh.Cotton acreage is 23 per cent lower at 63.18 lh from 82 lh, while soybean is down to 47.80 lh from 79.20 lh, and groundnut to 16.93 lh from 28 lh.Among pulses, arhar (pigeon peas) sowing reached 12.35 lh, down from 21 lh, moong (green gram) 16.81 lh from 17.20 lh and urad (black matpe) at 3.01 lh from 4.63 lh.Among the coarse/nutri cereals, jowar area reached 4.53 lh against 4.89 lh a year ago, whereas bajra dipped to 20.82 lh from 30 lh, ragi at 0.84 lh from 0.88 lh and maize at 32.94 lh from 35 lh. Sugarcane acreage has reached 57.58 lh against 56.72 lh a year ago, while jute and mesta coverage reported at 6.28 lh from 6.16 lh, data show.The government has fixed a production target of 176.16 million tonnes (mt) of foodgrains, which includes 123.15 mt of rice, 8.4 mt of pulses, 31.04 mt of maize and 13.56 mt of nutri cereals during Kharif 2026. Among the 28.92 mt oilseeds target, soyabean has been aimed at 14.85 mt and groundnut at 11.35 mt.Published on July 6, 2026
