The sowing of crops during the ongoing kharif season was up 1.7 per cent with most of the crops reporting higher coverage from a year ago. Only the acreage of cotton, soyabean and urad (black matpe) is lower, which may shift to other crops even if it recovers in the coming days as monsoon resumes its progress.

According to data, the area reached 119.90 lakh hectares (lh) as of June 19, up from 117.95 lh year-ago. While sugarcane planting, which started much earlier but considered under Kharif season, has reached 57.31 lh against 56.64 lh year-ago, there may be a revision at end of the season.

Kharif season’s main cereal paddy has been transplanted on 12.36 lh against 8.09 lh a year ago, while pulses acreage reached 7.21 lh from 6.39 lh and that of oilseeds was down at 7.24 lh from 8.11 lh. The coverage of nutri/coarse cereals was reported 26.5 per cent higher at 12.43 lh against 9.82 lh.

Arhar area up

Cotton acreage is 25 per cent lower at 17.13 lh from 22.82 lh, while soybean 1.30 lh from 2.50lh, urad (black matpe) at 0.62 from 0.98 lh.

Among pulses, arhar (pigeon peas) sowing reached 1.61 lh from 1.59 lh, moong (green gram) 4.08 lh from 2.86 lh. Groundnut acreage is higher at 5.25 lh against 5.09 lh.

Among the coarse/nutri cereals, jowar area reached 1.74 lh from 1.40 lh a year ago, bajra at 4.05 lh from 2.14 lh, ragi at 0.31 lh from 0.27 lh and maize at 5.69 lh from 5.34 lh.

Erratic progress

Monsoon progress has been erratic since its onset over Kerala on June 4. As now it has revived after nearly a fortnight there are expectations of some improvement in sowing where there is assured irrigation. However, as rainfall deficiency is very high at 43 per cent so far, officials are closely monitoring the sowing activities.

India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday said that conditions are favourable for further advance of south-west monsoon into some more parts of Maharashtra (including Mumbai), remaining parts of Telangana and Odisha, some more parts of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar by June 24. Heavy to very heavy rainfall (7-20cm) has been predicted over north-east region as well as West Bengal during the week.

Published on June 22, 2026