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Informist, Wednesday, Jun. 24, 2026

 

MUMBAI – Farmers in Maharashtra have sown kharif crops across 516,250 hectares as of Monday, down nearly 85% from 3.38 million hectares a year ago, according to a report released by the state agriculture department. Of the season's normal area of 15.75 million hectares, only over 3% has been covered so far.

 

Though the southwest monsoon covered more than half of Maharashtra as of Tuesday, active monsoon conditions are yet to commence over most parts of the state, particularly over the interior regions. During Jun. 1–23, Maharashtra recorded 34.8 millimetres of rain, 76?low the normal for the period, data from the India Meteorological Department said. With water in reservoirs across Maharashtra at concerningly low levels, the state government has directed officials to stop the release of dam water for agricultural irrigation and reserve available stocks exclusively for drinking purposes until Aug. 31. This is likely to keep the progress in sowing kharif crops sluggish.

 

The area under paddy was down at 29,525 hectares from 58,583 hectares a year ago, according to the report. The area under maize dropped sharply to 30,428 hectares from 366,636 hectares, and that under bajra fell to 2,743 hectares from 108,446 hectares.

 

Tur acreage in the state slipped to 22,847 hectares from 251,006 hectares a year ago, the report showed. The acreage of urad was down at 3,040 hectares from 137,519 hectares, and that of moong fell to 1,313 hectares from 85,164 hectares a year ago. The total area under all pulses was 27,669 hectares, down from 478,711 hectares a year ago.

 

The total area under all oilseeds so far fell to 63,286 hectares from 1.18 million hectares a year ago, according to the data. The area under groundnut was down at 2,422 hectares from 26,229 hectares, and that under soybean declined to 60,441 hectares from 1.15 million hectares.

 

Cotton acreage in the state fell to 340,817 hectares from 1.15 million hectares a year ago, while the area under sugarcane was down at 19,591 hectares from 21,092 hectares.

 

Kharif crops are sown at the beginning of the southwest monsoon season around June and harvested around October. As of Wednesday, the water level in dams across Maharashtra was nearly 23% of their live storage capacity, down from 40% a year ago, according to data from the state water resources department.  End

 

Reported by Shreya Shetty

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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