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 12.84Mha, 19.86pc, or 2.13Mha ahead of the planting pace at the same time in 2024. Wheat is by far the biggest rabi crop in India each season, accounting for around half of the planted acreage. Indian farmers are tipped to increase the 2025 area by at least 5pc from last year’s record of 34.2Mha.

With an average of 14Mha sown each season, pulses collectively account for around 22pc of India’s winter-crop area. Chickpeas are the most significant pulse crop, with around 72pc of that total, followed by lentils with about 11pc. The government’s November 21 data put the planted pulse area at 7.34Mha, 7.6pc ahead of the same date last year. The pace of chickpea seeding was running 9pc ahead of 2024, while lentils were 5.2pc higher.

Oilseeds are also a significant part of the nation’s winter-crop program, with an average of 8.7Mha, or more than an eighth of the annual area. Rapeseed and mustard are grouped in the data, making up more than 90pc of the oilseed campaign. Planting of this year’s oilseed crop is the most advanced of all categories, with 7.66Mha in the ground as of November 21, 5.4pc ahead of the 7.27Mha that had been sown on the same date, 12 months earlier. Sowing of the rapeseed and mustard crop had reached 7.38Mha, 6.1pc ahead of last year’s pace.

Coarse cereal grains make up an average of around 9pc of the annual rabi campaign, or 5.5Mha. The total area planted to coarse grains as of Friday week ago was 1.97Mha against 1.73Mha at the same time last year.  Sorghum, corn and barley account for around 97pc of the coarse-grain program, with the pace of seeding running 6.6pc, 22.1pc and 16.6 pc ahead of the previous corresponding period respectively.

While rice is primarily grown in the kharif (summer) crop cycle, it does account for around 4.3Mha, or 7pc of the winter program. Unlike the monsoon-dependent kharif season, rabi rice cultivation relies heavily on irrigation, as it takes place in the cooler, drier months from November through to April. Seeding of rice paddies is in its infancy, but the campaign is already 8.8pc ahead of the same date in 2024.

There are reportedly two primary reasons for the higher rabi coverage this year. First is the above-average soil-moisture profile with the south-west monsoon continuing into October and the north-east monsoon bringing surplus rainfall until a hiatus in the first two weeks of November.  India Meteorological Department data reveal that, as of November 19, post-monsoon rainfall from October 1 was 27pc above normal. Rainfall registrations in the north-western part were more than double the long-term average, while in the central part it was 52 per cent higher. The second reason is that the above-average monsoon has recharged groundwater tables and pushed water levels in the nation’s major reservoirs close to 90pc of their capacity. This creates certainty around the availability of irrigation water when required throughout the growing season. More than half of India’s farming area, both rabi and kharif, is dependent on irrigation each year, with the rabi crops more heavily reliant, as they are grown in the dry season.

Additionally, the higher minimum support prices (MSP) offered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for key rabi crops and the premature completion of this year’s kharif harvest have incentivised farmers to commence the rabi program earlier and to increase the area allocated to this season’s winter cycle. On October 1, the government announced it had “hiked the MSP for all mandated rabi crops for the 2026-27 marketing season.” The wheat price increased 6.6pc to 2,85 Indian rupee per quintal (A$443/tonne), barley rose by 8.6pc to ₹2150/q ($368/t), chickpeas are 4pc higher at ₹5875/q ($1006/t), lentils received a 4.45pc boost to ₹7000/q ($1199/t) and the rapeseed/mustard price jumped 4.2pc to ₹6200/q ($1062/t).  Significantly higher stocks of urea at the conclusion of the kharif cropping cycle also add to grower confidence as the planting program proceeds. In early November, the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers advised that urea imports had more than doubled to 5.86Mt in the April to October period. compared to only 2.47Mt in the same period last year. “This rise in imports not only met the enhanced demand of urea during kharif 2025 but also helped to build
adequate buffer stocks for the upcoming rabi season,” the ministry stated. As a result, overall urea stocks increased from 4.8Mt on October 1, to 6.8Mt by October 31.

While the 2025-26 rabi cropping campaign is certainly in its infancy, early indications suggest that India’s farmers are currently on track to meet the government’s target of 171.14Mt of foodgrain production in the winter-crop cycle, including a record 119Mt of wheat, 15.9Mt of rice, 16.6Mt of pulses, 3.17Mt of nutri cereals such as millet, 14.5Mt of corn, 2.05Mt of barley, and 15.07Mt of oilseeds, including 13.9Mt of mustard.

Tags: crop, mustard, harvest, rabi, corn, kharif, barley, coarse grains, planting, minimum support prices, rice, sorghum, oilseeds, area, wheat, chickpeas, rapeseed