Increase in sowing of coarse grains and industrial crops
08-Jul-2025 06:08 PM
New Delhi. However, contrary to expectations, this time the sowing of maize is lagging behind last year and the area of ragi has also decreased, but due to good sowing of jowar and millet, there has been a good increase in the total area of coarse grains during the Kharif period.
The latest weekly data of the Union Agriculture Ministry shows that in the current Kharif season, till July 4, 2025, the total production area of coarse grains has increased to 77.18 lakh hectares, which is 21 percent more than the sowing area of 63.79 lakh hectares during the same period last year.
Under this, the area of maize slipped 2.1 percent from 40.21 lakh hectares to 39.35 lakh hectares, but the area of sorghum improved from 4.64 lakh hectares to 5.54 lakh hectares and the sowing area of millet jumped from 16.78 lakh hectares to 30.82 lakh hectares.
There has been a strong sowing of millets in Rajasthan while there are indications of an increase in area in other major producing states as well.
Among cash or industrial crops, the production area of cotton improved from 78.58 lakh hectares last year to 79.54 lakh hectares this time but the sowing area of jute/mesta slipped from 5.62 lakh hectares to 5.47 lakh hectares.
As far as sugarcane is concerned, no new data has been released for it while under the old data, its production area was reported to have improved from 54.88 lakh hectares last year to 55.16 lakh hectares this time. It is known that last year the final figure of sugarcane sowing was reduced to 53.58 lakh hectares.
According to the Meteorological Department, during the first week of the current month i.e. 1-7 July, 74 mm of rain fell in the country which was 31 percent more than the normal average of 56.3 mm.
Similarly, between June 1 and July 7, the total rainfall at the national level increased by 15 percent from the normal average to 254 mm.
This helped farmers to increase the pace of sowing of Kharif crops. The sowing process will be quite fast in July-August and its total area is expected to reach around or slightly above last year.