New Delhi, July 13 (IANS) The total area sown under kharif crops in the current season so far is estimated at 531.25 lakh hectares as on July 10 this year, compared with the corresponding figure of 632.69 lakh hectares in the same period last year, data released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare on Monday showed.

The official figures show that the area under rice is 114.69 lakh hectares so far this year, compared with 125.53 lakh hectares during the same period last year. The decline in the area sown so far is attributed to the deficient monsoon this year.

Similarly, the area under pulses such as urad and moong is also lower at 56.63 lakh hectares compared with 73.85 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 98.69 lakh hectares during the current season so far, compared with 127.30 lakh hectares in the same period of the previous year.

However, the area under sugarcane, which is an annual crop sown earlier, has risen to 57.58 lakh hectares from the corresponding figure of 56.72 lakh hectares for the same period of the previous year.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has 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, the statement said.

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

–IANS

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