Industry Odisha Bureau, Aug 11: Even though the annual monsoon rainfall has reportedly revived with its requisite spell and intensity since last month as well as in the current month, and also the sowing activities by the Indian farmers have gathered momentum in the ongoing Kharif season, estimates by the agricultural experts have reportedly found out that this year’s Kharif sowing acreage levels still lag behind in comparison with last year’s figure.
Media reports, citing the data availed from the Union Ministry of Agriculture, have stated that, “While the Indian farmers have undertaken this year’s Karif sowing activities across 96.8 million hectares as of August 7, it is estimated to be 1.8 million hectares less than the corresponding period of last year, because the Indian farmers had planted crops across 98.6 milliom hectares by that time period in 2025. Similarly, the Kharif sowing as of July 31 this year was 2.9% below last year’s acreage levels. The acreage level of sowing of paddy, a major Kharif crop in India, stood at 34.4 million hectares, i.e. 1.6 million hectares down from the 36 million hectares in 2025 by this time period.”
Notably, “As the everage for 2020-21 to 2024-25 has officially been defined by the Government, the normal acreage level for the Kharif stands at 110.4 million hectares, while the acreage under key Kharif crops include paddy, pulses, coarse cereals, sugarcane, and cotton.”
Media reports, citing rainfall data availed from the India Meteorological Department (IMD), have stated that, “India received 1% above-normal rainfall in July, a sharp turnaround after a 35% deficit in June this year. India received 283.3 mm rainfall during July against the long-period average (LPA) of 280.5 mm, reducing the overall deficit during June–July to 12.6%. However, India is likely to receive less than 94% of the LPA rainfall in August–September, claims the IMD’s forecast. Besides, based on the 1971–2020 climatological record, the August–September LPA is 422.8 mm.”
