Crop Report
India kharif sowing dn 2% YoY at 113.6 mln ha; paddy area falls
This story was originally published at 21:34 IST on 7 August 2026
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MUMBAI – The sowing of kharif crops across the country has reached 113.6 million hectares as of Friday, down nearly 2% from 115.9 million hectares a year ago, according to data from the agriculture ministry. Compared with the normal area at this period of the year, the sowing area is down 11.7%. A week ago, the shortfall had been nearly 4%.
The sowing of paddy, the largest kharif crop, declined 4.4% on year to nearly 34.5 million hectares, while maize fell nearly 4% to 8.7 million hectares. Area under pulses was down 1.8% to nearly 10.4 million hectares. Acerage of urad rose 12.8% while that of tur and moong recorded a decline of 6.5% and 5.4%, respectively.
Sowing of oilseeds continued to rise and exceeded 18 million hectares, up 3% on year. All major oilseeds recorded a rise, with groundnut rising nearly 9%. Among cash crops, area under jute rose 1.9%, but sugarcane and cotton were down by less than 1%, the data showed.
The following table details the sowing of key kharif crops as of Friday, in million hectares, compared with year-ago levels and the year-on-year change in percentage terms:
| Crop | Acreage 2026 (mln ha) | Acreage 2025 (mln ha) | Change (%) |
| Paddy | 34.48 | 36.07 | -4.4 |
| Tur | 3.75 | 4.01 | -6.5 |
| Urad | 2.29 | 2.03 | 12.8 |
| Moong | 3.14 | 3.32 | -5.4 |
| Total Pulses* | 10.38 | 10.57 | -1.8 |
| Maize | 8.71 | 9.06 | -3.9 |
| Bajra | 6.24 | 6.3 | -1 |
| Jowar | 1.28 | 1.26 | 1.59 |
| Total Coarse Cereals* | 16.85 | 17.32 | -2.7 |
| Groundnut | 4.68 | 4.31 | 8.6 |
| Soybean | 11.99 | 11.97 | 0.17 |
| Total Oilseeds* | 18.02 | 17.5 | 2.97 |
| Sugarcane | 5.83 | 5.86 | -0.5 |
| Jute & Mesta | 6.34 | 6.22 | 1.93 |
| Cotton | 10.6 | 10.64 | -0.4 |
| Grand Total* | 113.64 | 115.91 | -2 |
* The total figures will not tally due to the omission of some smaller crops
End
Reported by Abhijit Doshi
Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj
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