More Stories

Informist, Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025

 

By Shreya Shetty

 

MUMBAI – The area sown under urad, or black gram, in the ongoing kharif season has dropped due to heavy rainfall and farmers opting for alternative crops such as maize, analysts and traders said. Urad acreage is likely to remain down for the rest of the season as the sowing window has almost come to a close, they said.

 

As of Jul. 26, urad acreage across the country fell 7% on year to 1.66 million hectares, data from the agriculture ministry showed. According to the sowing reports of some states available with Informist, urad acreage is showing mixed trends. So far in Gujarat, the area sown under urad was down 22% on year, while in Maharashtra and Telangana it fell 10% on year and 11% on year, respectively, presumably because farmers have shifted to maize. On the other hand, urad acreage in Rajasthan was up 6% and in Andhra Pradesh it was up 11% so far.

 

"The urad sowing window is on the verge of closure, so I do not see an increase (in sown area)," said Satish Upadhyay, secretary of India Pulses and Grains Association. Intense rainfall in states such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh has hampered the sowing of the legume and damaged already-sown crops in some areas, Upadhyay said.

 

"In the Ashoknagar, Guna, Shivpuri belt (in Madhya Pradesh), a lot of the crop has vanished due to rain damage," said Gaurav Kochar, a trader from Ashoknagar.

 

"When there is high rainfall, even the soil is too wet to sow the crop," Upadhyay said.

 

In the southwest monsoon season so far, much of the rainfall activity has been limited to northwest, east, and central India. Many urad-producing districts in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan have recorded "large excess" rainfall so far, data from the India Meteorological Department showed. Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are among top producers of the legume in the country.

 

"Urad is a sensitive crop," Upadhyay explained, adding, "Because of climate change, it is even more prone to damage. The monsoon pattern has shifted, it is either delayed or early or both."

 

This year, monsoon hit the Kerala coast on May 24, eight days ahead of its normal date of Jun. 1, and by May 29 the monsoon current covered southern and northeast India entirely, and parts of east and central India. However, after May 29, the monsoon was in a weak phase and resumed advancing only on Jun. 16. The monsoon covered entire India on Jun. 29, nine days before the normal date of Jul. 8.

 

Some farmers in key urad-producing states are opting to sow cotton and maize due to better yield and remuneration when compared to urad, market participants said.

 

"Farmers are fed up with the sensitive, luck-by-chance urad crop. Some are shifting to other crops such as cotton, maize, and cash crops which are not as sensitive as urad is," Upadhyay said. 

 

"Farmers have shifted to other crops for better yields and better money, such as maize," Kochar said.

 

Many farmers are increasingly choosing to grow maize over other crops due to rising demand from the ethanol sector, which also has a prominent push from the government. The coarse grain also has relatively low risks compared to other crops, especially in terms of weather, crop damage, and yields.

 

"A perfect sowing report is yet to come," said Rahul Chauhan, director of IGrain, an agro-commodity research centre. "Some states may release the sowing numbers late, so it will take another 15 days for clarity. But as per my study, area may go down further," he said.

 

High imports of the legume are also discouraging farmers from growing urad, Chauhan said. However, Upadhyay disagrees, stating that urad imports are normal for the country.

 

"(Urad) imports have never posed a risk to farmers in India as the country has been importing it for years, there is an understanding that we need imports to make up for our deficiencies," Upadhyay said. 

 

Imports of urad have been duty-free in India since May 2021. In 2024-25 (Apr-Mar), the country imported 820,259 tonnes urad, up more than 31% on year, data from the commerce ministry showed.

 

However, the fall in the kharif acreage of the crop is unlikely to pose a major challenge, analysts and traders said. This is mainly due to a relatively new, but growing, trend of farmers sowing urad during the summer crop season as well.

 

"More and more farmers are choosing to grow urad in the summer crop season rather than in the kharif season due to the stable climate in the former," Upadhyay said, adding, "Kharif yield and output are very low."

 

"In summer, most farmers growing pulses have only two options, urad and moong," Kochar said.

 

While urad is also grown during the rabi season, the country's urad acreage during the summer crop season has also been rising since 2022. The area sown under urad in the summer crop season was 300,000 hectares in 2024-25 (Jul-Jun), up from 270,000 hectares sown in 2023-24 and 260,000 hectares covered in 2022-23, according to data from the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

 

The yield of the crop is also better during the summer crop compared to the kharif season, with the 2024-25 summer crop season recording a yield of 917 kg per hectare against the yield of 620 kg per hectare in the kharif season of the same year, data from the department showed.  End

 

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2025. All rights reserved.