Total area sown in India’s current kharif season so far crosses 84 lakh hectares

New Delhi, June 17 (IANS) The total area sown under kharif crops in the current season so far has been estimated at 84.6 lakh hectares as on June 12 this year, compared with the corresponding figure of 88.04 lakh hectares in the same period last year, data released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare on Wednesday showed.

The official figures show that the area under rice is 4.98 lakh hectares so far this year, which has gone up by 1.09 lakh hectares from the corresponding figure of 3.88 lakh hectares during the same period last year.

The area under pulses such as urad and moong is estimated at 1.55 lakh hectares compared with 2.73 lakh hectares during the same period last year.

The area covered under coarse cereals or millets such as jowar, bajra and ragi has been estimated at 4.77 lakh hectares during the current season so far, compared with 4.32 lakh hectares in the same period of the previous year.

The area under sugarcane is pegged at 54.08 lakh hectares, which is more or less the same as the corresponding figure of 54.29 lakh hectares for the same period of the previous year.

The kharif season has just kicked off in the southern states with the onset of the monsoon, which will steadily make its way up to central and north India in the coming days.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had approved an increase in the Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for 14 kharif crops for Marketing Season 2026-27 to ensure remunerative prices to farmers.

The increase in MSP for Kharif Crops for Marketing Season 2026-27 is in line with the Union Budget 2018-19 announcement of fixing the MSP at a level of at least 1.5 times of the all-India weighted average cost of production, The expected margin to farmers over their cost of production are estimated to be highest in case of moong (61 per cent), followed by Bajra (56 per cent), maize (56 per cent) and tur/arhar (54 per cent). For the rest of the crops, the margin to farmers over their cost of production is estimated to be at 50 per cent, as per an official statement.

In recent years, the government has been promoting the cultivation of crops other than cereals, such as pulses and oilseeds, and nutri-cereals/’Shree Anna’ (millets), by offering a higher MSP for these crops.

–IANS

sps/vd