Maharashtra Kharif Sowing Lags Despite Good Rains

19-Aug-2025 08:45 PM

Mumbai. Although Maharashtra, an important agricultural producing state located in the western part of the country, has received good rains this year during the southwest monsoon and it is still raining heavily, sowing of Kharif crops there is lagging behind last year.

Data from the state agriculture department shows that the total production area of Kharif crops in Maharashtra has reached 143.47 lakh hectares this time, which is 1.48 lakh hectares less than the sowing area of 144.95 lakh hectares during the same period last year. The sowing process is almost about to end.

According to official data, compared to last year, the production area of paddy and coarse grains in Maharashtra during the current Kharif season increased from 31.23 lakh hectares to 33.54 lakh hectares,

but the sowing area of pulses fell from 18.89 lakh hectares to 18.46 lakh hectares. There has also been a decline in the area under oilseeds and area under cotton has come down from 40.84 lakh hectare to 38.35 lakh hectare.

In the category of cereal crops, production area of paddy improved from 14.11 lakh hectare to 14.27 lakh hectare and sowing area of maize jumped from 11.07 lakh hectare to 14.38 lakh hectare but area under sorghum fell from 1.08 lakh hectare to 84 thousand hectare and area under millet came down from 3.99 lakh hectare to 3.24 lakh hectare.

Among pulses crops, the production area of tuvar slipped from 12.10 lakh hectare to 12.07 lakh hectare, sowing area of moong slipped from 2.32 lakh hectare to 2.09 lakh hectare,

area of urad slipped from 3.75 lakh hectare to 3.74 lakh hectare and area of other pulses slipped from 71 thousand hectare to 66 thousand hectare. There has been a good improvement in the sowing area of pulses in the recent weeks.

Among oilseeds crops, the production area of soybean declined from 50.52 lakh hectare to 49.42 lakh hectare and sowing area of groundnut declined from 1.47 lakh hectare to 1.34 lakh hectare.