Crops
India's kharif sowing: rice and cotton lose ground, pulses, bajra and sunflower gain
Crop-wise data put the 2026-27 kharif area at 1,279.66 lakh hectares, marginally below last year: rice 426.81 lakh ha (down 3.82%), cotton 109.34 (down 0.88%), maize 91.59 (down 2.64%), while pulses rose to 118.46 (up 1.43%) on urad and tur, bajra to 64.88 (up 3.19%) and sunflower nearly doubled to