Releasing the first advanced estimate, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that though excessive rainfall affected crops in some areas of the country, most parts have benefited significantly from a good monsoon, leading to overall good crop growth.
India's rice production in the 2025 kharif season is estimated to hit a new record of around 124.50 million tonnes (mt), 1.4 per cent more than the same season last year, the first advance estimate of food grains production for the 2025-26 crop season released Wednesday said.
The crop season runs from July to June.
The overall kharif food-grains production for 2025-26 is estimated to be 173.33 mt, which is around 3.9 mt or 2.3 per cent more than the kharif season of 2024-25.
Sowing for kharif crops starts around June, with the onset of monsoon, and harvesting starts from October onwards. A good kharif production is expected to further keep inflation under check which has already dropped to multi-year lows.
Also, a bumper rice production could put pressure on the government to step up its official purchases in 2025-26 further adding on to the bulging state inventories which on November 1 was estimated at 64.31 mt, as against the buffer requirement of 30.77 million tonnes.
Meanwhile, the data showed that production of maize in the kharif season is estimated to be around 28.30 mt which is around 3.5 mt more than the same period last year.
Releasing the first advanced estimate, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that though excessive rainfall affected crops in some areas of the country, most parts have benefited significantly from a good monsoon, leading to overall good crop growth.
Meanwhile, total kharif pulses production is projected at 7.41 mt which is slightly lower than the 7.73 mt of last year.
Within this, according to the official data, production of tur (arhar) is estimated at 3.59 mt as against 3.62 mt last season while urad production is estimated at 1.2 mt as against 1.34 mt last year and moong at 1.72 mt against 1.77 mt of last year.
Kharif oilseeds production is estimated at 27.56 mt, according to the first advanced estimate which too is marginally lower than 28.02 million tonnes of last year.
Within oilseeds groundnut production is projected at 11.0 mt, which is around 0.60 mt more than last year, and soybean production estimated at 14.26 mt, down from 15.26 mt of last kharif season.
"These estimates are based on yield trends from previous years, other ground-level inputs and field observations, primarily from the states. These estimates will be revised as actual yield data from crop cutting experiments become available," an official statement said.
Among other crops, the data showed sugarcane production is estimated at 475.61 mt, an increase of almost 21 mt from last year while cotton production is estimated at 29.21 million bales (one bale weighing 170 kilograms) slightly down from the 29.72 million bales of last year.
Jute production is estimated at 8.34 million bales (one bale weighing 180 kilograms), down from 8.48 million bales of last kharif season.
