Area sown to rice up 19% so far across in current kharif season on good rains

03 Aug 2020 Evaluate

The agriculture ministry in its latest data said area sown to rice, the main kharif crop, has increased by 19% to 26.660 million hectares so far across the country in the current kharif season on account of good rains. Total area under all kharif crops rose 13.92 per cent to 88.218 million hectares of area against 77.438 million hectares in the said period. Among cash crops, cotton planting has risen by 11.29% to 12.125 million hectares so far in the current kharif season of the 2020-21 crop year (July-June) from 10.895 million hectares in the year-ago period.

Sowing of kharif crops begins with the onset of southwest monsoon from June, while harvesting from October onwards. It said ‘There has been satisfactory progress of sowing area coverage under Kharif crops. ...so, as a whole, there is no impact of Covid-19 on progress of area coverage under kharif crops as on date’. It also said that the Centre is taking several measures to facilitate the farmers and farming activities at field level during the Covid-19 pandemic.

As per the data, higher rice planting area has been reported in states of Bihar (1.001 million hectares) followed by Madhya Pradesh (819,000 hectares), Jharkhand (750,000 hectares), West Bengal (460,000 hectares), Uttar Pradesh (457,000 hectares), Odisha (401,000 hectares), Chhattisgarh (390,000 hectares) and Telangana (328,000 hectares).

Pulses sowing has increased by 19.26% to 11.191 million hectares area till August 31 of the ongoing kharif season compared to 9.384 million hectares in the year-ago period. Area sown to moong has increased by 37.42% to 2.957 million hectares from 2.152 million hectares, while that of urad by 21% to 3.338 million hectares from 2.764 million hectares and arhar area increased by 8 per cent to 4.005 million hectares from 3.709 million hectares in the said period.

In case of oilseeds, the sowing area rose by 16.80 per cent to 17.534 million hectares so far in the current kharif season from 15.012 million hectares in the year-ago period. Soyabean area rose by 8.35 per cent to 11.662 million hectares from 107.64 per cent in the said period. In case of sugarcane, the area coverage rose to 5.178 million hectares so far in the current kharif season as compared to 5.120 million hectares during the corresponding period last year.

© 2026 The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. MoneyWorks4Me ® is a registered trademark of The Alchemists Ark Pvt. Ltd.

×