More Stories

Informist, Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025

 

By Shreya Shetty, J. Navya Sruthi, and Taniva Singha Roy

 

MUMBAI – The area sown under wheat and mustard is likely to rise in the 2025-26 (Jul-Jun) rabi season as farmers received better returns from both the crops, said Sandeep Bansal, director, Shree Goverdhan Roller Flour Mills Ltd. Some of the growth in wheat acreage could come at the cost of reduction in chana acreage, he said.

 

Speaking on the sidelines of the Wheat Summit here, Bansal said that other than wheat, mustard was the only other crop which fetched good returns for farmers in the ongoing rabi marketing year. The higher minimum support prices of both the crops are also expected to encourage the shift, he said. 

 

The minimum support price for wheat in the rabi marketing season 2025-26 (Apr-Mar) was raised by INR 150 per 100 kg to INR 2,425 per 100 kg, with an additional bonus offered by the Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh governments. Similarly, the minimum support price of mustard was increased by INR 300 per 100 kg to INR 5,950 per 100 kg in the ongoing rabi season.

 

Bansal also said bonuses by state governments over the central government's minimum support price would also encourage farmers to shift to wheat in the upcoming rabi season. For the ongoing rabi marketing year, the Madhya Pradesh government had announced a bonus of INR 175 per 100 kg over the minimum support price and the Rajasthan government announced a bonus of INR 150 per 100 kg. Bansal said these state governments are likely to continue such bonuses in 2026-27 as well.

 

Currently, wheat prices in key spot markets are around INR 2,800 per 100 kg. These prices are higher than the government's minimum support price. This is also the case with mustard prices, which are being traded around INR 6,500 per 100 kg in key markets.

 

Bansal said mustard is the only oilseed which gave better returns this year. Despite higher returns, he said the area under mustard is unlikely to increase as much as the area under wheat due to higher moisture content in the soil amid above-normal rainfall in the current southwest monsoon.

 

Bansal said chana acreage is likely to fall as farmers are shifting from the legume to wheat amid rising imports from Australia. Buyers prefer Australian chana as it is cheaper and of better quality than the domestic variety, local traders said. Australia is the largest exporter of chana to India. Shipments of the new chana crop in Australia are expected to arrive in India between October and December, they said.

 

While the minimum support price of chana for the rabi marketing season 2025-26 was also raised by INR 210 per 100 kg to INR 5,650 per 100 kg, it has not been substantial enough to encourage farmers due to the government's failed attempts at procuring chana, local traders said. Traders blame the government's lack of storage and finances for the failure, which has been taken up by the large procurement of both wheat and rice.

 

With the government's larger focus on procurement of wheat and rice over pulses such as chana, farmers are more inclined to sow the former grain. For 2025-26 rabi marketing season (Apr-Jun), the government procured over 30 million tonnes of wheat, up from 26.6 million tonnes procured in the year-ago period. On the other hand, the government purchased only 320,000 tonnes of chana against their target of 2.8 million tonnes during the same season.

 

As of Sept. 1, wheat stocks in the central pool were up over 32% on year at 33.3 million tonnes, data from the Food Corp. of India showed. The current wheat stocks are well above the buffer norm of 27.58 million tonnes--operational stock of 24.58 million tonnes and strategic reserve of 3.00 million tonnes.

 

Additionally, higher moisture content in soil due to above-normal rainfall during the ongoing southwest monsoon is more beneficial for the wheat crop, Bansal said. Higher moisture content in soil is not as favourable for growing chana, he explained. 

 

However, only 10% of farmers are likely to shift from chana to wheat, Bansal said. Chana is the largest legume in terms of both acreage and production in India.  End

 

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

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.