India’s rabi-crop plantings expected to increase

Hot on the heels of a record rabi (winter) crop harvest earlier this year, planting of India’s 2026 rabi crops such as wheat, barley and chickpeas are well advanced, with the government announcing last week it expected the final area to exceed that of the 2024 program. The Agriculture Secretary Devesh Chaturvedi advised reporters last week: “Rabi sowing is higher than last year’s progress. There was a lot of rain. And in some areas because of the late harvesting, it’s a bit delayed. But we hope that we will cover the rabi higher than last year.” According to the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, the final area planted to rabi crops in the 2024-25 campaign totalled 655.88 lakh hectares, or 65.588 million hectares, compared to the long-term average of 63.782Mha. Official planting progress data released last week put the winter-crop seeded area as of November 21 at 30.63Mha, 3.35Mha, or 12.3 percent ahead of the same time last year. This included a wheat area of ...