Farm labourers sowing paddy (kharif crops) in a field at Hisar in Haryana, on a cloudy morning
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India’s sowing during the ongoing Kharif season has reached 531.25 lakh hectares (lh) as of July 10, which is 48 per cent of the season’s normal area of 1104.46 lh. However, it is 16 per cent less than 632.69 lh in the year-ago period.However, expansion of the area might not see a similar level of rise next week, even as over 180 lh got planted last week. This was against nearly 190 lh in the year-ago period, as the monsoon rainfall in key states has slowed down.The deficit in kharif season’s main cereal, paddy, has narrowed further to 9 per cent as of July 10 against 13 per cent until July 5. According to data released by the Agriculture Ministry, paddy has been transplanted on 114.69 lh against 125.53 lh a year ago.Area of concernA fall in pulses and oilseeds acreage may be a concern for the government as the country is dependent on imports to meet domestic demand. The area under all pulses reached 56.63 lh against 73.85 lh a year ago. Oilseeds acreage was 117.83 lh against 149.18 lh. The coverage of nutri/coarse cereals was reported 21 per cent lower at 98.69 lh against 127.30 lh.Cotton acreage is 15 per cent lower at 79.54 lh from 94 lh, while soyabean is down to 90.51 lh from 107.72 lh, and groundnut is down to 23.40 lh from 35.45 lh.Among pulses, arhar sowing was 19.54 lh, down 30 per cent from 28.03 lh, moong (green gram) 21.52 lh from 24.08 lh and urad (black gram) at 9.34 lh from 13.29 lh.Sugarcane upAmong the coarse/nutri cereals, jowar acreage reached 6.88 lh against 9.01 lh a year ago, whereas bajra coverage dipped to 33.76 lh from 45.98 lh. The area under ragi was 0.93 lh against 1.11 lh a year ago, and maize was sown on 55.97 lh compared with 69.56 lh. Sugarcane sowing has been completed, and it is reported at 57.58 lh against 56.72 lh a year ago, while jute and mesta sowing too has been completed. It was 6.28 lh as of July 10, against 6.16 lh a year ago, data showed.After the revival of monsoon from July 1, the overall deficit, which was 37 per cent (as per revised data) in June, has now been reported at 19 per cent during June 1-July 13, India Meteorological Department (IMD) data show. The seasonal rainfall deficit until July 10 was 14 per cent. The pan-India rainfall deficit during July 11-13 was 42 per cent, sources said, adding the gap may further widen as there is no prediction of rainfall in major agricultural states over the next few days.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. The oilseeds target is 28.92 mt (soyabean 14.85 mt and groundnut 11.35 mt).According to the Central Water Commission (CWC), the level in the major reservoirs increased to 32.38 per cent or 59.443 billion cubic metres (BCM), of the 183.565 BCM capacity as on July 9. A week before, the level was 26 per cent of the capacity.Published on July 13, 2026
