August 2026 Crop Advisory: A State-by-State Guide for Farmers

Published: 1 August 2026 · Data current to 24 July 2026 · By Anamika Anand · 18 min read

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Quick answer

Stop reading the national rainfall number. It no longer describes anybody's field.

India's cumulative monsoon deficit stood at 17% on 23 July 2026 — but that single figure now averages together four completely different situations:

A fifth group — Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu — shows "normal" seasonal rainfall but has had long dry gaps inside that total. Normal on paper is not the same as well-watered in the field.

Find your zone below, then go to your crop's growth stage. August is when kharif crops set yield. What you do this month is worth more than anything you did in June.

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On this page

• Where the monsoon stands: the numbers that matter
• State-wise rainfall deficit table
• Zone 1: Flood and excess rainfall states
• Zone 2: Deep-deficit southern states
• Zone 3: Punjab and Haryana
• Zone 4: Bihar, Jharkhand and the east
• Zone 5: The "normal on paper" states
• Crop-stage calendar: what August does to each crop
• Pest and disease watchlist for August
• Crop insurance: the 72-hour rule
• Prices: why rice is behaving strangely this year
• State schemes and deadlines
• Frequently asked questions

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Where the monsoon stands: the numbers that matter {monsoon-status-august-2026}

Between 1 June and 23 July 2026, India received 306.9 mm of rain against a normal of 370.9 mm — a deficit of 17%.

That is a real improvement. June was one of the driest on record at roughly 40% below normal; the week of 16–22 July came in just 1% below normal, which counts as normal. The monsoon has recovered.

But the recovery has been wildly uneven, and the regional breakdown tells the actual story:

Even during the good week of 16–22 July, when the country as a whole was normal, the South Peninsula stayed 26% below normal. Southern India has not participated in the recovery.

El Niño is strengthening — and that matters most for August and September

Sea surface temperatures across the central and eastern Pacific remain above normal, and the Monsoon Mission Coupled Forecast System indicates El Niño conditions are likely to strengthen further through the rest of the season.

This is the part farmers should take seriously. El Niño historically suppresses the back half of the Indian monsoon more than the front half. The season's updated long-range forecast already put June–September rainfall at about 90% of the long-period average. August and September are where that shortfall is most likely to land — and they are also the months when standing kharif crops flower and fill grain.

[UPDATE BEFORE PUBLISHING] — The IMD issues its August outlook and second-half-of-season forecast around 31 July. Insert the actual figures here before this article goes live. Do not publish this section with placeholder text.

What the extended-range forecast showed at data cutoff

For 30 July – 5 August, the IMD expected the monsoon trough to return close to its normal position, with an upper-air cyclonic circulation developing over the north and adjoining west-central Bay of Bengal and the low-level Somali Jet strengthening.

Under that pattern: widespread rain over the Western Himalayan region with isolated heavy to very heavy falls in Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand; widespread rain across Northeast India with heavy spells over Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya and Sikkim; and widespread rain along the west coast including Konkan & Goa, coastal Karnataka and Kerala. Country-level rainfall was expected to be normal for that week, with near-normal to above-normal conditions over most of South Peninsular India and much of East and Central India — and below-normal rainfall elsewhere.

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State-wise rainfall deficit, 2026 monsoon {state-wise-rainfall-2026}

Position as of 23 July 2026:

District-level counts from mid-July show how deep the problem runs in some states: Telangana had 25 of 33 districts below normal, Karnataka 21 of 31, Gujarat 21 of 33, Assam 22 of 35, and Maharashtra 19 of 36. Punjab had 11 districts deficient and 2 in large deficit out of 22.

Note the contradiction in Gujarat — deficient for the season, yet flooding at the end of July. That is exactly the kind of whiplash a weak, badly distributed monsoon produces, and it is why an averaged number is useless for farm decisions.

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Zone 1: Flood and excess rainfall states {zone-1-flood-states}

Where: South Gujarat (Valsad, Navsari, Surat, Tapi, Dang, Bharuch, Narmada), Konkan & Goa, coastal Karnataka, Kerala, Western Himalaya (J&K, Himachal, Uttarakhand), Northeast (Arunachal, Assam, Meghalaya, Sikkim).

What happened in South Gujarat

After weeks in which Gujarat recorded almost no rain — one week in mid-July came in 99% below normal, just 0.6 mm against a normal of 54.4 mm — the second half of July brought catastrophic rainfall. Valsad district recorded over 36 inches in 24 hours on 23 July. Extremely heavy rainfall also hit Navsari, Tapi, Surat and Dang. The IMD issued a red alert for all South Gujarat districts, with a warning of continued heavy to extremely heavy rainfall.

Army, NDRF and SDRF teams were deployed, and over 500 residents were evacuated from Umargam, Vapi, Dharampur and Pardi talukas. Rail services between Surat and Mumbai were suspended.

What to do in the first 48 hours after water recedes

Field recovery after flooding follows a strict order. Getting the sequence wrong wastes the effort.

1. Drain first, everything else second. Open field bunds at the lowest point and clear drainage channels. For most kharif crops other than paddy, more than 48 hours of standing water causes root death and invites root rot. For paddy, standing water is survivable, but complete submergence for more than a few days is not.

2. Do not walk on saturated soil more than you must. Compaction on a waterlogged field causes damage that persists for the rest of the season.

3. Wash silt off the leaves. Where floodwater has deposited silt on foliage, a light spray of clean water restores photosynthesis. Silt-coated leaves are effectively blind.

4. Then feed the crop through the leaf, not the soil. Waterlogged roots cannot take up nutrients efficiently, and soil-applied nitrogen will largely be lost to leaching and denitrification. Use a foliar spray — 2% urea, or a water-soluble NPK — once the plants are upright and the leaves are clean. This is a rescue measure, not a replacement for the season's nutrition plan.

5. Expect fungal disease and act early. Saturated soil plus warm temperatures is the ideal environment for root rot, collar rot, bacterial blight and, in soybeans, rhizoctonia. Consult your KVK for a locally recommended fungicide and dose — this is not something to guess at.

6. Assess gaps and decide fast about gap-filling. In early August, there is still time to gap-fill with a short-duration pulse or fodder crop. By late August, that window closes.

7. Report the loss within 72 hours. See the insurance section — this is the single most valuable thing a flood-affected farmer can do, and it has a hard deadline.

For hill states and the Northeast

The risk profile is different: landslides, terrace collapse, and soil erosion rather than standing water. Priorities are checking and repairing terrace risers and field bunds before the next spell, clearing diversion channels above cultivated land, and mulching exposed slopes. In Himachal, where all districts were logging rainfall deficits earlier in the season even as isolated heavy spells caused damage, both problems can exist within a single district.

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Zone 2: The deep-deficit southern states {zone-2-southern-drought}

Where: Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka (especially north interior), Kerala, Goa.

This is the most serious agricultural situation in the country right now, and it is receiving the least national attention because the headline monsoon number has improved.

South Peninsular India was 26% below normal for the season, and stayed 26% below normal even during the week the rest of the country recovered. In the week of 9–15 July, Andhra Pradesh recorded a 92% rainfall deficit and Telangana 94%.

The core August decision: which crops get the water

If your irrigation source is limited — a tank that never filled, a borewell drawing down, a canal on restricted release — the decisive question this month is not how to save every crop. It is which crop you concentrate the water on.

Concentrate on the crop that is nearest its critical water-demand stage, and on the acreage you can genuinely carry through to harvest. A half-irrigated 10 acres yields less than a properly irrigated 6 acres. Farmers consistently lose money trying to save everything.

Critical stages, in order of water sensitivity:

A single life-saving irrigation delivered at the right stage is worth more than three irrigations delivered at the wrong ones.

Practical drought measures for August

• Mulch with any residue you have. Crop residue, weeds cut before seeding, anything. It cuts evaporation loss substantially and costs nothing but labour.
• Foliar nutrition under stress. A 2% urea spray, or potassium nitrate where recommended, helps the plant hold on through a dry spell. Potassium improves drought tolerance specifically.
• Do not apply soil nitrogen to dry soil. It is wasted, and it can burn a stressed crop.
• Thin, if the crop is badly stressed. Removing some plants reduces total water demand and lets the remainder complete grain filling. Counter-intuitive, and sometimes correct.
• Weed aggressively. Weeds compete for exactly the resource you are short of.

Contingency and fodder crops

Telangana's district administrations have been advising farmers away from paddy toward semi-dry crops where tanks and projects have not filled, and groundwater is expected to decline. The state's contingency list includes redgram, greengram, blackgram, jowar, bajra and maize.

For August sowing in the south specifically, consider horsegram, castor, fodder sorghum and fodder maize. Fodder is the underrated decision here. In a genuine drought year, the livestock feed crisis arrives in November and hurts households that had ignored it in August. If you keep animals, plant fodder now.

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Zone 3: Punjab and Haryana — deficient rainfall, but that is not the real problem {zone-3-punjab-haryana}

Punjab recorded a 39% rainfall deficit through mid-July; Haryana also sits in the deficient band. But both states run heavily irrigated paddy systems, so the immediate crop risk is lower than the numbers suggest. The costs land elsewhere.

The groundwater cost. A deficient monsoon in Punjab means the shortfall is made up by pumping. That is a bill paid in aquifer depth and diesel or power, not in yield — this year, and again next year.

The more urgent pest cost. Here is the specific August risk for the northwest paddy belt:

A rain-deficient, warm, humid season with heavy nitrogen application and a dense canopy is the textbook set-up for brown planthopper and white-backed planthopper.

Both nymphs and adults suck sap from the leaf sheath from July through October, and the crop dries in patches that expand as hoppers migrate to adjoining plants — the pattern known as hopperburn.

What to do about it:

• Scout at the base of the plant. Part the canopy and look at the stem near water level. BPH is invisible from the bund. This is the single most common scouting failure in Punjab paddy.
• Respect the economic threshold. ICAR-IIRR guidance puts it in the region of ten brown planthoppers per hill at tillering. Spraying below threshold kills the spiders and mirid bugs that were controlling the population for free, and accelerates insecticide resistance. Blanket prophylactic spraying is how outbreaks are manufactured.
• Cut back nitrogen, do not add. Lush, over-fertilised crops are BPH magnets. If you are tempted to top-dress more urea because the crop looks pale, get a leaf colour chart reading first.
• Open the canopy. Alleyways every few metres improve air movement and light penetration and reduce the humid microclimate hoppers need.

Also watch: rice stem borer, which causes dead-hearts in young plants and whiteheads in older ones, and rice dwarfing disease, which shows as severe stunting with short, dark green, stiff leaves and shallow roots that lift easily.

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Zone 4: Bihar, Jharkhand and the eastern belt {zone-4-eastern-states}

Where: Bihar, Jharkhand, eastern Uttar Pradesh, and most Northeast states.

East and Northeast India remain the worst-affected region at 32% below normal for the season. Bihar recorded a 47% deficit through mid-July. This belt combines the two worst attributes: high rainfall dependence and low irrigation coverage.

If transplanting is still incomplete — this is the last window

Mid-August is the practical cut-off for paddy transplanting across most of this belt. Past that, the crop runs into cold night temperatures at grain filling, and the rabi handover collapses.

If you are still transplanting in early August:

• Use only short-duration varieties. For the eastern region, ICAR's Patna research complex has recommended Swarna Shreya, Swarna Unnat, Prabhat, Turanta, Sahbhagi, Rajendra Shweta, DRR-46, Arize-6129 and Arize-6444. Aim for 125 days or less.
• Use older seedlings correctly. If seedlings have overstayed in the nursery, plant more seedlings per hill (4–5 instead of 2–3), plant shallow, and expect reduced tillering. Do not plant overaged seedlings at normal spacing and hope.
• Increase seed rate by 15–20% for any fresh nursery.
• If mid-August passes and a field is still bare, stop planting for rice. Switch to a short-duration pulse, oilseed, or fodder, or prepare the field early for an advanced rabi sowing. An early rabi crop on that acre will out-earn a doomed late paddy.

Bihar-specific support

The state has prioritised daytime power supply for irrigation from roughly 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., so pump-set irrigation happens in daylight. District magistrates in low-rainfall areas have been directed to prepare situation reports, and a diesel subsidy for irrigation is on the table if conditions warrant it. Diesel subsidy in previous rounds was processed through the state agriculture department's DBT portal.

Keep every diesel purchase receipt. Receipts are what convert an announcement into money in a bank account.

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Zone 5: The "normal on paper" states {zone-5-normal-states}

Where: Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu.

These states show normal seasonal rainfall — and that is exactly why farmers there should not relax.

A seasonal total can be normal while containing a three-week dry spell that coincided with flowering. Maharashtra sits in the "normal" category for the season, yet recorded a 78% deficit during the week of 9–15 July, and 19 of its 36 districts were below normal at mid-month. Madhya Pradesh was 73% short that same week.

What this means practically: in these states, do not manage by the seasonal number. Manage by soil moisture in your own field, and by the 5-day and extended-range forecast. The rain that made your state "normal" may have fallen in a district three hundred kilometres away.

Crop-specific August priorities in this zone:

• Soybean (MP, Maharashtra, Rajasthan): flowering to pod filling in August. Watch for yellow mosaic virus, spread by whitefly — control the vector, not the virus. Watch girdle beetle and semilooper. Avoid spraying at peak flowering where you can, to protect pollinators. Rust risk rises after extended wet spells.
• Cotton (Maharashtra, MP, Rajasthan, Telangana, Gujarat): squaring to boll formation. Pink bollworm season begins — see below.
• Paddy (Chhattisgarh, Odisha, WB, TN, eastern UP): tillering to panicle initiation. Top-dress nitrogen at PI, not before.
• Sugarcane (UP, Maharashtra): grand growth phase. Earth up, prop against lodging before high-wind spells, and watch for borers.

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Crop-stage calendar: what August actually does to each crop {crop-stage-calendar-august}

August is when kharif crops move from building leaves to building yield. Every crop below hits a stage this month where stress translates directly into lost grain.

Paddy: get panicle initiation right

Panicle initiation is roughly when the crop is 25–30 days from flowering, and it is the moment that determines how many grains the plant will attempt to fill. Two rules:

Top-dress nitrogen at PI, not earlier. Nitrogen applied too early goes into leaves and stems and feeds planthoppers. Applied at PI, it goes into panicle size.

Never let the field go dry at PI. If you are managing water tightly with alternate wetting and drying, PI through flowering is the period to suspend it and keep water on the field. AWD is for the vegetative stage.

Cotton: the pink bollworm clock starts now

Pink bollworm damage is invisible until it is expensive, because the larva develops inside the boll.

• Install pheromone traps from first flowering — the standard recommendation is around 8 traps per hectare for monitoring, more for mass trapping. Check them twice a week and keep a written count.
• Look for rosette flowers — flowers whose petals are twisted and fail to open properly. That is the diagnostic field symptom, and it appears before boll damage is visible.
• Open a few bolls each week and look inside. Nothing else tells you what is actually happening.
• Do not spray synthetic pyrethroids early in the season. They flare whitefly and destroy natural enemies. Save them, if you use them at all, for later.
• Sucking pests — aphids, jassids, whitefly — peak in August. Threshold-based control only.

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Pest and disease watchlist for August 2026 {pest-watch-august-2026}

A weak, erratic monsoon changes pest pressure in specific and predictable ways. Two mechanisms drive it: moisture-stressed plants are less able to defend themselves, and long dry spells punctuated by heavy rain disrupt the natural enemies that normally do the work for free.

An outbreak already underway: fall armyworm has been reported across six districts of Himachal Pradesh's maize belt, covering roughly 1.5 lakh hectares of maize, with infestation reaching around 15% in some blocks. FAW spreads fast and does its damage early. If you grow maize anywhere in north India, scout this week.

The single most important pest-management principle in a stressed year: spray only after crossing the economic threshold. Below-threshold spraying kills the predators and parasitoids that were controlling the pest for free, accelerates resistance, and costs money you may need for irrigation. In a bad year, the temptation to spray prophylactically is strongest, and the consequences are worst.

Confirm all chemical choices, doses, and pre-harvest intervals with your KVK or district agriculture officer. Recommendations vary by state, crop, variety and growth stage.

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Crop insurance in August: the 72-hour rule most farmers miss {crop-insurance-claim-72-hours}

The PMFBY enrolment window for Kharif 2026 closed on 31 July 2026 in most states, though some states extend. If you enrolled, the important thing now is knowing how to actually claim.

This is the rule that matters in August, and most farmers do not know it:

For localised calamities — inundation, hailstorm, landslide, cloudburst — and for post-harvest losses, you must report the damage within 72 hours of it occurring.

Not within 72 hours of noticing it. Not after the water drains. Within 72 hours of the event.

How to report:

• The Krishi Rakshak Portal, or the helpline 14447
• Your insurance company's toll-free number
• Your bank branch, PACS, or the CSC where you enrolled
• Your district agriculture officer

What to do alongside reporting:

1. Photograph the damage immediately, with date and location visible if your phone supports it. Take wide shots showing field boundaries and close shots showing crop condition.
2. Note the exact date and time the event occurred.
3. Keep your enrolment receipt and policy number accessible — not buried in a drawer.
4. Do not clear or replant the damaged area until a surveyor has assessed it, unless the delay would cause further loss. If you must act first, photograph thoroughly.

For flood-affected farmers in South Gujarat, Konkan and the Northeast, this is the most financially significant action available this month. A field survey with no report filed within 72 hours is a weak claim.

If you did not enrol: you have no PMFBY cover for this season. You may still be eligible for state disaster relief and input subsidy in notified calamity-affected areas, which operate separately from crop insurance. Contact your district agriculture office and get your name onto the damage survey list.

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Prices: why rice is behaving strangely this year {rice-prices-2026}

Something unusual is happening in the rice market, and farmers with paddy to sell in October should understand it now rather than in October.

Non-basmati rice prices have risen 15–20% in a month. Parboiled non-basmati rice moved from ₹2,800–2,900 per quintal to ₹3,300–3,400 per quintal on an FOB basis at Kakinada port. Broken rice rose nearly 20% to ₹2,650–2,700 per quintal. Basmati rose more modestly, around 5%.

Why: a combination of the weak monsoon, lower paddy acreage than last year, rising freight costs, and reports of localised shortages. Exporters who signed contracts at earlier prices are now unable to procure profitably, and some have defaulted.

What this means for a farmer with paddy to sell:

The MSP for common-grade paddy in 2026-27 is ₹2,441 per quintal, and Grade A is ₹2,461. In a normal year, MSP functions as a floor and mandi prices hover near or below it. In a short-supply year, open-market mandi prices can rule above MSP for some varieties in some markets.

So the practical advice is: do not assume MSP is your ceiling this season, and do not assume it is your floor either.

• Track your local mandi rates daily on Agmarknet or your state's mandi portal from late September.
• Do not commit your entire crop to a single channel before harvest.
• Be cautious about advance sales at fixed prices made now against an October harvest — in a rising market these lock in a loss.
• Equally, be realistic. A high FOB export price at a port is not a farmgate price. The gap between the two is real and large.

One more caution. Government procurement itself could be affected if open-market prices stay above MSP, since farmers sell where the price is better. Watch for procurement policy announcements ahead of the Kharif Marketing Season.

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State schemes and deadlines to act on in August {state-schemes-august-2026}

A note on rural credit. A recent NABARD survey signalled a rural slowdown, with income growth at a two-year low and informal borrowing rising. In a deficit year, the temptation to borrow from informal lenders at punishing rates to fund an emergency irrigation or a re-sowing is very real. If you have a Kisan Credit Card, use it before you use a private lender. If you do not have one, apply now — the central enrolment drive has been stepped up, and the interest difference over a single season is substantial.

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The rabi handover: start planning it this month

A point worth repeating from our July advisory, because August is when it becomes actionable.

Reservoir storage stood at roughly 34% of capacity in mid-July, only about 61% of last year's level. Groundwater has been drawn harder than usual across the Gangetic plain and the southern peninsula. Whatever happens to kharif, rabi 2026-27 starts from a depleted water base.

That has three implications you can act on now:

1. Choose short-duration kharif varieties even at some yield cost, so the field frees up early for rabi.
2. Book rabi seed in August, not October. Short-duration and drought-tolerant wheat, mustard and gram varieties will be in demand and short supply this year.
3. If you can build on-farm water storage or a farm pond before October, do it. This is the year it pays for itself.

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Your August checklist

• Identify which of the five zones your district falls into
• Identify your crop's current growth stage and its next critical water demand
• Flooded areas: report insured losses within 72 hours and photograph everything
• Paddy: plan the nitrogen top-dress for panicle initiation, not before
• Paddy: suspend AWD from panicle initiation through flowering
• Cotton: install pheromone traps and start weekly rosette-flower checks
• Maize: scout for fall armyworm weekly, by walking the field
• Soybean: control whitefly to control yellow mosaic virus
• Drought zones: decide which acreage gets the water, and concentrate it
• Drought zones: plant fodder now if you keep livestock
• Bihar/east: complete transplanting by mid-August or switch crops
• Read the IMD August and second-half forecast
• Book rabi seed
• Keep every receipt

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The honest bottom line

The national headline has improved from a 40% June deficit to 17% for the season, and that will be read as good news. For farmers in Ladakh, Uttarakhand and much of central India, it broadly is.

For a cotton farmer in Adilabad who re-sowed once already, a paddy farmer in Nalanda whose seedlings overstayed the nursery, or a farmer in Valsad whose field was under three feet of water on 23 July, the national average describes nothing at all.

August will decide this season, and El Niño is strengthening as it begins. The good news is that the responses are known, specific and mostly cheap: scout before you spray, water at the critical stage rather than continuously, report losses within 72 hours, and choose the variety that frees your field for rabi.

Find your zone. Find your crop stage. Act this week.

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Frequently asked questions {faq}

What is the monsoon rainfall deficit in India in 2026?

Between 1 June and 23 July 2026, India received 306.9 mm of rainfall against a normal of 370.9 mm — a deficit of 17%. The shortfall is very unevenly distributed: East and Northeast India were 32% below normal, South Peninsular India 26% below, Northwest India 10% below, and Central India 6% below.

Which states have the worst rainfall deficit in 2026?

As of 23 July 2026, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and all Northeast states except Tripura recorded deficits ranging from 20% to 58% below normal. Telangana had 25 of 33 districts below normal and Karnataka 21 of 31. Only Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir recorded above-normal rainfall.

What should farmers do after flood damage to crops?

Drain the field first and clear channels, then wash silt off the leaves so the plant can photosynthesise, then apply foliar nutrition such as a 2% urea spray rather than soil fertiliser, since waterlogged roots absorb poorly. Watch for root rot and collar rot. Critically, report insured losses within 72 hours of the event through the Krishi Rakshak portal, helpline 14447, your insurer, or your bank, and photograph the damage before clearing anything.

What is the 72-hour rule in PMFBY crop insurance?

Under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, losses from localised calamities such as inundation, hailstorm, landslide and cloudburst, as well as post-harvest losses, must be reported within 72 hours of the event occurring. Reports can be made via the Krishi Rakshak portal, helpline 14447, the insurance company, the bank branch, PACS, or the district agriculture officer.

When should nitrogen be top-dressed in paddy?

Nitrogen should be top-dressed at panicle initiation, roughly 25 to 30 days before flowering. Applying nitrogen earlier pushes growth into leaves and stems, which encourages planthoppers, whereas nitrogen at panicle initiation contributes to panicle size and grain number.

How do I control brown planthopper in rice?

Scout at the base of the plant by parting the canopy and examining the stem near water level, since the pest is not visible from the field edge. The economic threshold from ICAR-IIRR is around ten brown planthoppers per hill at tillering — spray only after crossing it, because earlier spraying destroys natural enemies and accelerates resistance. Avoid excess nitrogen and open alleyways in the canopy to reduce humidity.

How do I detect pink bollworm in cotton early?

Install pheromone traps from first flowering, at around 8 traps per hectare for monitoring, and check them twice weekly. In the field, look for rosette flowers — blooms whose petals twist and fail to open normally — which is the earliest visible symptom. Open a few bolls each week and inspect inside, since the larva feeds internally and damage is otherwise invisible until harvest.

Is it too late to transplant paddy in August 2026?

Across the eastern belt including Bihar, Jharkhand and eastern Uttar Pradesh, mid-August is the practical cut-off for paddy transplanting. Beyond that, the crop meets cold night temperatures at grain filling and delays the following rabi sowing. If transplanting in early August, use only short-duration varieties of 125 days or less, plant 4 to 5 seedlings per hill if seedlings are overaged, and plant shallow.

Will rice prices be above MSP in 2026-27?

Non-basmati rice prices rose 15 to 20% in the month to late July 2026, driven by the weak monsoon, lower paddy acreage, and higher freight costs. The MSP for common-grade paddy for 2026-27 is ₹2,441 per quintal, and Grade A is ₹2,461. In a short-supply year, open-market mandi prices can exceed MSP in some markets — farmers should track local mandi rates daily from late September rather than assuming MSP is either a ceiling or a floor.

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Sources: India Meteorological Department weekly rainfall data, extended-range forecasts and press releases, July 2026; Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare sowing data and review meetings; Central Water Commission reservoir storage bulletins; ICAR Eastern Research Complex, Patna agro-advisory; ICAR-IIRR economic threshold guidance; state contingency plans for Telangana and Chhattisgarh; CCEA MSP notification for Kharif 2026-27; market price reporting, July 2026.

This advisory is general in nature. Variety selection, chemical choice, dosage and timing vary by state, agro-climatic zone, crop and growth stage. Confirm with your district agriculture office or Krishi Vigyan Kendra before acting.