Sugarcane sowing in kharif 2026 nears normal levels but trails last year’s coverage
India’s sugarcane sowing reached 54.08 lakh hectares as of June 12, 2026, nearly matching the normal area of 54.20 lakh hectares but remaining 4.76 lakh hectares below the 58.84 lakh hectares recorded in 2025. Sugarcane is among the few kharif crops to have already achieved near-normal coverage early in the season.
New Delhi: Sugarcane sowing across India reached 54.08 lakh hectares as of June 12, 2026, nearly matching the crop’s normal coverage but remaining below the area recorded during the previous season, according to data released by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
Figures published by the Press Information Bureau showed that sugarcane acreage this year stood close to the normal area of 54.20 lakh hectares, calculated as the average coverage between 2020-21 and 2024-25.
However, compared with the previous season, the area remained lower. Sugarcane had covered 58.84 lakh hectares by the end of the 2025 season, placing current coverage about 4.76 lakh hectares behind last year’s final level.
Despite trailing 2025 figures, sugarcane emerged as one of the few crops to have already achieved almost its full normal area early in the kharif season. The trend reflects the crop’s long-duration and largely perennial cultivation pattern, unlike several other kharif crops that are typically sown later as monsoon activity advances.
Across all kharif crops, total area coverage stood at 84.60 lakh hectares as on June 12, significantly lower than the normal area of 1,104.46 lakh hectares and well below the final coverage of 1,134.27 lakh hectares recorded in 2025, indicating that sowing for most crops was still at an early stage.
Among major crops, rice led sowing with 4.98 lakh hectares, followed by coarse cereals at 4.77 lakh hectares and oilseeds at 3.51 lakh hectares.
Cotton was sown across 9.53 lakh hectares, while pulses covered 1.55 lakh hectares. Jute and mesta together accounted for 6.18 lakh hectares, slightly below their normal area of 6.40 lakh hectares.
The ministry compiles and publishes sowing data every week during the kharif season to track progress against historical averages across major crop categories including sugarcane, cereals, pulses, oilseeds and cash crops.
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Source : ChiniMandi
