Kharif Sowing Reaches 1086.31 Lakh Hectares This Season

The correct answer is 1086.31 lakh hectares. The weekly progressive sowing report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, issued on 8 September 2026, gives this as the total area under kharif crops for the position as on 4 September 2026. Compared with the same week of the previous season, sowing is lower by 17.69 lakh hectares, and the season is also running below the normal area with which the department compares each weekly report. Options A, C and D are numbers built around the correct one by changing only the leading digits, which is exactly how a paper setter tests whether a candidate has memorised the figure or merely recognises its shape. None of them appears in the report. While revising, keep the total area and the date it refers to together, because the same report is issued every week and the figure changes with each release.

The correct answer is pulses, and jute and mesta. Pulses were sown on 117.13 lakh hectares against 115.30 lakh hectares a year earlier, and jute and mesta on 6.34 lakh hectares against 6.24 lakh hectares, so these are the only two groups of the report standing above last season. Option A is wrong because rice is the biggest loser of the season, its area falling to 421.82 lakh hectares from 438.19 lakh hectares, and cotton is also down. Option B is wrong because oilseeds slipped to 191.99 lakh hectares and sugarcane to 58.47 lakh hectares. Option D is wrong on both counts, as Shri Anna and coarse cereals came down to 181.39 lakh hectares while cotton came down to 109.17 lakh hectares. Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Telangana drove the gain in pulses, and Bihar and West Bengal the gain in jute.

The correct answer is that kharif crops are sown with the onset of the south-west monsoon. That is why the agriculture ministry publishes a weekly progressive sowing report through the monsoon months and why the position as on 4 September 2026, when the sown area stood at 1086.31 lakh hectares, is treated as an important signal for the year's foodgrain supply. Option B describes the rabi season, whose crops such as wheat and mustard are sown in the cooler months and harvested in spring, and the report under discussion is not a rabi report. Option C is wrong because kharif sowing follows the rains rather than the rabi harvest alone, and much of the acreage is rain fed. Option D is wrong because kharif sowing is spread across rain fed as well as irrigated areas of the country, and not confined to command areas in a winter month.