As sowing area under kharif season’s main pulse arhar (pigeon pea) was 18 per cent lower, as of July 17, mainly due to a significant drop in Karnataka, farmers in Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have planted the crop on a higher area. However, the overall area may end up below target even if it recovers in Maharashtra and Gujarat due to erratic rainfall, experts said.According to the data, total coverage under arhar has reached 24.80 lakh hectares (lh) against 30.17 lh as on July 17, 2025. The government has targeted over 50 lh area to be covered under arhar so that the country gets at least 4 million tonnes (mt) production in 2026.Maharashtra has reported 10 per cent fall at 9.60 lh from 10.71 lh, Karnataka has 42 per cent lower at 6.56 lh from 11.25 lh and Madhya Pradesh 31 per cent drop at 1.34 lh from 1.93 lh.Rise likelyOn the other hand, Uttar Pradesh has reported 30 per cent rise in area at 2.52 lh against 1.94 lh, Telangana 16 per cent up at 1.53 lh from 1.32 lh and Andhra Pradesh more than double at 1.08 lh from 0.49 lh.Commenting on the sowing progress and outlook, Aditya Pratap of Kanpur-based Indian Institute of Pulses Research (IIPR) under ICAR, said that there may be significant improvement in next weekly update of sowing as there have been rains in many states in the past few days.Asked on the normal sowing window of June-July in major producing states, he said it may continue till August 10 this year due to delayed and deficient rain earlier. He also said that farmers in Karnataka’s Bidar and Gulbarga, two major arhar producing districts, had to re-sow the crop after rain stopped in June.There are short (less than 150 days maturity) and medium duration (150-180 days) varieties suitable for Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh and farmers who were doing medium duration crop can continue sowing arhar until first week of August with an eye to harvest around February. But some farmers who will opt for short duration arhar so that they can take some short duration crop in Rabi season, they may have to complete sowing by this month end.Published on July 22, 2026