Decline in Paddy Acreage May Lead to Lower Rice Production

New Delhi: Due to the delayed, erratic and uncertain southwest monsoon, the area under paddy cultivation has fallen to 43.093 million hectares, about 4% or 1.632 million hectares lower than last year’s record acreage of 44.725 million hectares. However, the current paddy acreage remains significantly higher than the five-year average.

The 2025–26 kharif season was an exception, when the area under paddy cultivation rose sharply to an all-time high.

Compared with last year, the acreage under paddy has declined in the current kharif season in all four major rice-producing southern states—Telangana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu—due to deficient monsoon rainfall and inadequate water storage in dams and reservoirs. In addition, paddy has been cultivated on a smaller area in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Jharkhand.

Although several parts of the country have been receiving heavy rainfall during the withdrawal phase of the southwest monsoon, it is difficult to make up for the crop losses that have already occurred.

Interestingly, despite the possibility of a significant decline in domestic production, the central government has made only a marginal reduction in its paddy procurement target. For the 2025–26 Kharif Marketing Season, the procurement target was set at 72.05 million tonnes, while for the 2026–27 season, the target has been fixed at 71.92 million tonnes, a reduction of only 0.13 million tonnes (1.3 lakh tonnes).