After lower acreage for almost two months since the sowing started, the acreage under Kharif oilseeds is nearly 3 per cent up at 180.20 lakh hectares (lh) currently. If August remains favourable for monsoon, the acreage may reach the normal level of about 200 lh, officials said, hoping to see the season ends up with higher acreage.“After the launch of the Oilseeds Mission in Rabi 2024, this is the fourth season. While the first two seasons witnessed lower acreage, only in the last Rabi season the oilseeds area increased thanks to robust mustard price in mandis. Earlier, it was feared that there might be again a decline, but thanks to a good monsoon in July, not only the initial shortfall covered, but now it is higher. Hopefully, this trend will continue till end of this month,” said a senior official.The government targets an oilseeds acreage of 206.45 lh and production of 289.25 lakh tonnes (lt) – 113.50 lt of goundnut, 148.50 lt of soyabean, 21.50 lt of castor, 4.20 lt of sesamum -- during Kharif 2026. The actual output of oilseeds during Kharif 2025 was 266.68 lt from an area of 196.38 lh.Castorseed area downAccording to official sources, the area until Friday under groundnut was 46.82 lh, up by 8.6 per cent, that of soyabean was 119.92 lh, up by 0.2 per cent and sesamum at 9.96 lh, up by 16.9 per cent.The area under castor seed is, however, 23 per cent lower at 2.27 lh. Gujarat, the largest grower of castor seeds, has reported 44 per cent fall in acreage at 1.3 lh, sources said.After 35 per cent deficient rainfall in June and 1 per cent surplus in July, the first week of August witnessed 4 per cent below normal precipitation. Monsoon rainfall across the country between June 1 and August 7 is now recorded at 11 per cent lower than normal.Among the major oilseeds growing states, Madhya Pradesh has reported 56 per cent deficient rain, Maharashtra 25 per cent less and Rajasthan 20 per cent less during first week of August. But there was adequate rainfall for oilseeds crops in these three states in the last week of July, officials said.On the other hand, the states which have reported surplus rainfall in the first week of this month include Gujarat (60 per cent), Tamil Nadu (45 per cent), Karnataka (24 per cent) and Uttar Pradesh (36 per cent). Though Telangana has reported 22 per cent shortfall in rain, overall in the season since June 1 is only 5 per cent less.Published on August 7, 2026