With the rain-fed monsoon core zone of central India getting adequate rainfall in the first fortnight of this month, sowing of key kharif crops — rice, pulses, oilseeds and cotton — has picked up pace.
Overall sown area, so far, is at 65.81 million hectare (Mha), a 6% year-on-year decline. Until a week ago, sown area was 16% below last year’s level. Total sowing till July 17, according to the agriculture ministry, was 60% of the normal area of 110 mha.
Rice, the major kharif crop, has been sown across 16.64 Mha, a marginal decline of 0.84% y-o-y. Average area for paddy sowing stands at 41.2 Mha. A week ago, rice acreage was 8.6% below the 2025 level. Improvement in rainfall in eastern and central parts of the country has led to the expansion of area under paddy acreage in the last fortnight, an official said.
Area under pulses acreage stands at 6.92 Mha, a sharp 15% y-o-y fall, mostly attributed to the scanty rainfall received until the end of June in central India. Till a week ago, area under pulses was down 23% compared to 2025 level.
Harsha Rai, head, Mayur Global Corporation, a leading pulses trading firm, said the sowing window is still open in several regions and rainfall during the crop growth period will determine the yield.
Tur (pigeon pea), a key kharif pulse, has been sown across 2.48 Mha so far, still nearly 18% lower than last year, due to delayed monsoon arrivals in Maharashtra and Karnataka this season.
“Sowing of pulses may not be impacted yet. Distribution of rainfall during the next couple of months is likely to affect the yield of pulses, especially tur,” Nitin Kalantri, managing director, Kalantry Food Products, a Latur, Maharashtra-based pulses processor, told FE.
Cotton acreage is 5.96% lower at 79.25 Mha y-o-y. Oilseeds — soyabean and groundnut — area lagged 5.54% y-o-y, while the rainfall in central India, especially in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, has been adequate in July.
The official said that kharif crop sowing will get a further boost during the next couple of weeks as the monsoon has again entered an ‘active’ phase until the end of the month after a break, following an early surge in July.
Only sugarcane acreage, which started much earlier but is considered part of the kharif season, has shown a rise.
Overall monsoon deficit this season is at 23.1% on Monday, down from nearly 40% at the end of June. According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), cumulative rainfall during June 1-July 20 is 263.2 millimetres (mm) against the benchmark longer period average (LPA) of 332.1 mm, which is still in the ‘deficient’ range.
“Active monsoon conditions are likely over northwest, and northeast India during the next 4-5 days,” IMD stated in its forecast.