Sixteen crops, twenty years of official data: maize and moong grew fastest, roughly half from new land and half from better yields; soybean grew only by taking more land; groundnut and bajra grew only through yield; jowar and ragi shrank. Each crop’s states, districts, yield gaps and harvest swings, one by one.
Sixteen Crops, Twenty Years: Where India’s Harvest Grew From More Land and Where From Better Yields
An earlier piece on this site mapped India’s crops as a whole. This one goes crop by crop through sixteen of them, the main cereals, pulses, oilseeds, cotton and sugarcane. For each it asks five questions. How fast has output grown? Did that growth come from more land or from more output per hectare? Which states and districts grow it? How wide is the yield gap between the best and worst major producers? And how much does the national harvest swing from one year to the next?
How much to trust it. All figures are from the Department of Agriculture’s Unified Portal for Agricultural Statistics (UPAG): all-India area, production and yield from 1966-67, state figures from 1997-98 and district figures from 2015-16, with 2025-26 at the third advance estimate. To keep one drought or bumper year from driving the comparisons, “2003-06” means the average of 2003-04 to 2005-06 and “2023-26” the average of 2023-24 to 2025-26. Growth is split into area and yield on a log scale, so the two parts add up exactly. Cotton production is in bales of 170 kg of lint; UPAG’s download labels it lakh tonnes, but the figures only reconcile with its published yield as bales. State yield gaps compare only states producing at least 3% of a crop. Telangana appears from 2014, when it was carved out of Andhra Pradesh, so its earlier output sits in Andhra’s figures. The data and code are in the open repository india-mandi-arrivals.
Where growth came from: land or yield
Moong and maize grew fastest, about 6% a year for twenty years, roughly half from new land and half from better yields. Nine crops grew 2.6–3.7% a year, and for rice, wheat, gram, lentil and urad yield did more of the work than area. Three crops break the pattern. Soybean grew only by expanding: its area rose from 73 to 129 lakh hectares while its yield stayed at about a tonne a hectare. Groundnut and bajra went the other way, losing area but raising yields enough to grow anyway. Jowar and ragi are the only crops to shrink: jowar’s area fell from 90 to 39 lakh hectares, and better yields could not make up for it.
The yield gap between states
The gaps are widest in rainfed coarse grains and pulses, where a few irrigated pockets coexist with large dryland areas. Andhra Pradesh’s jowar, much of it grown in the rabi season, yields 2.9 times the national average while Rajasthan’s yields about two-thirds of it. Maize ranges from 70% of the national yield in Maharashtra to 194% in West Bengal, 170% in Bihar and 162% in Telangana, states where much of the crop is grown in the rabi season. The gaps are narrowest in lentil, sugarcane and soybean. For wheat and rice, Punjab’s yields are 41–46% above the national average.
How concentrated each crop is
Rice is grown almost everywhere: the three largest producers supply only 35%, down from 41%. Soybean is the opposite, with Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh alone producing 84%. Sugarcane, moong and tur have become more concentrated: Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka now grow 83% of India’s cane, against 69% in 2003-06. Jowar and gram have spread out, as Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan took up jowar and Gujarat and Rajasthan took up gram.
How much the harvest swings
Wheat and rice, largely irrigated, change about 4% in a typical year. Groundnut and moong, grown mostly on rain-fed land in the kharif season, change 21–22%, and soybean 17%. The 2002-03 drought produced the worst single-year fall for six of the sixteen crops, including a 23% drop in rice and a 41% drop in groundnut.
Crop by crop
Each card below shows production, area and yield since 1980, indexed so that the 2003-06 average equals 100, alongside the five largest producing states with their share of output and their yield over 2023-26. Production figures are 2023-26 averages unless a year is given.
Rice
Output averaged 147 million tonnes in 2023-26, up from 88 million in 2003-06, and reached a record 154 million in 2025-26. Two-thirds of the growth came from yield, which rose from 2,055 to 2,909 kg a hectare. Rice is the least concentrated crop here: Uttar Pradesh, the largest producer, grows 13%, and no district more than 1.2%. West Bengal’s share fell from 17% to 11% as Telangana rose to 12%. Punjab’s yield, 4,257 kg a hectare, is 46% above the national average.
Wheat
Output averaged 117 million tonnes, with a record 121 million in 2025-26, and yield rose from 2,645 to 3,582 kg a hectare. The big change is geographic: Madhya Pradesh’s share doubled from 10% to 21%, while Punjab’s fell from 21% to 15% and Uttar Pradesh’s from 34% to 30%. Punjab still has the highest yield, at 5,036 kg a hectare. Wheat is the steadiest harvest here: its worst fall since 2000 was 10%, in 2014-15.
Maize
The fastest-growing cereal: output rose from 15 million tonnes in 2003-06 to a record 55 million in 2025-26, with area up from 75 to 126 lakh hectares and yield from 1,962 to 3,588 kg. Growth has gathered pace since 2020 as ethanol distilleries and poultry feed compete for the crop. No state dominates: Madhya Pradesh grows 15%, Karnataka 13% and Bihar 12%. Bihar’s yield, 6,113 kg a hectare, is the highest of the five largest producers. The leading districts are Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh, at 3.0%, followed by Araria and Purnia in Bihar.
Jowar
The crop in steepest decline. Output averaged 4.7 million tonnes in 2023-26, about a third of its 1989-90 record of 12.9 million, as area fell from 90 to 39 lakh hectares in twenty years. Yield rose from 798 to 1,210 kg a hectare but could not offset the lost land. Maharashtra still grows 37%, down from 48%, led by Beed, Solapur and Dharashiv districts. Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan each grow more than twice their earlier share. Andhra Pradesh’s yield of 3,446 kg a hectare is 2.9 times the national figure.
Bajra
Output has barely grown, from 9.2 to 10.9 million tonnes, and has not beaten its 2003-04 record of 12.1 million. Area fell by a quarter, from 98 to 72 lakh hectares, while yield rose from 934 to 1,511 kg. Rajasthan grows 42% but at 1,105 kg a hectare, less than half the yield of Madhya Pradesh or Gujarat. Uttar Pradesh’s share rose from 13% to 19%. Production is concentrated in a few dry districts: Banas Kantha in Gujarat, Barmer in Rajasthan and Morena in Madhya Pradesh each grow 5–6%.
Ragi
A small and shrinking crop: 1.9 million tonnes, against a record 3.2 million in 1978-79. Yield has hardly moved in twenty years, at about 1,430–1,480 kg a hectare. Karnataka grows two-thirds of it, and ten districts grow 65%, led by Tumakuru (11%) and Mysuru (8%). Tamil Nadu’s yield, 3,240 kg a hectare, is more than double Karnataka’s. Ragi’s harvest swings 16% in a typical year, among the most volatile here.
Gram (chana)
India’s largest pulse doubled, from 5.6 to 11.6 million tonnes, with a record 13.5 million in 2021-22. Yield rose from 811 to 1,221 kg a hectare and area from 69 to 95 lakh hectares. The crop has moved south and west: Madhya Pradesh’s share fell from 45% to 20%, Maharashtra’s rose from 9% to 26% and Gujarat’s from 2% to 13%. Gujarat also has the highest yield, 1,816 kg a hectare. The leading districts are Buldhana, Nanded and Latur in Maharashtra.
Tur (arhar)
Output grew slowly, from 2.5 to 3.5 million tonnes, and remains below the 2016-17 record of 4.9 million. Yield rose only from 701 to 823 kg a hectare, the slowest of the pulses. Karnataka’s share more than doubled to 26%, but at 597 kg a hectare it has among the lowest yields of the large producers. Tur is highly concentrated by district: Kalaburagi grows 11% of India’s crop, Vijayapura 7% and Bidar 4%.
Moong
The fastest-growing crop here: output more than tripled, from 1.2 to a record 4.5 million tonnes in 2025-26, with area and yield each roughly doubling. Madhya Pradesh grows 42%, mostly as a summer crop, at a yield of 1,212 kg a hectare; Rajasthan grows 29% at 464 kg. Narmadapuram district alone grows 10% of India’s moong and Narsimhapur 7%. Moong is also one of the least predictable harvests, changing 21% in a typical year. Madhya Pradesh’s figures are missing for 2003-06, so its earlier share is not shown.
Urad
Almost all of urad’s growth, from 1.4 to 2.2 million tonnes, came from yield, which rose from 423 to 682 kg a hectare on an unchanged area of about 33 lakh hectares. Output remains below the 2017-18 record of 3.5 million tonnes. Madhya Pradesh grows 21%, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh 17% each; Maharashtra’s share halved to 10%. Andhra Pradesh’s yield is 1,173 kg a hectare, and its Krishna district grows 8% of India’s urad.
Lentil (masur)
Output rose from 1.0 to 1.7 million tonnes, close to the record set in 2023-24, mainly through yield, which reached 1,000 kg a hectare. Lentil is a two-state crop: Madhya Pradesh grows 39%, up from 26%, and Uttar Pradesh 37%, down from 48%. Their yields are within a few percent of each other, so lentil has the narrowest state yield gap here. The leading districts are Sagar and Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh.
Groundnut
Output reached a record 13.1 million tonnes in 2025-26 even though area fell from 65 to 54 lakh hectares: yield nearly doubled, from 1,188 to 2,155 kg a hectare. Gujarat grows 46%, and the crop has shifted north-west: Rajasthan’s share rose from 6% to 21% while Andhra Pradesh’s fell from 17% to 3%. Bikaner in Rajasthan is now the largest district, ahead of Rajkot and Junagadh in Gujarat. Groundnut is the most volatile harvest here, changing 22% in a typical year.
Rapeseed and mustard
Output nearly doubled, from 7.3 to 13.2 million tonnes, with a record 13.8 million in 2025-26; area grew a little more than yield. Rajasthan grows 44%, down from 51%, and all five leading districts are in Rajasthan, led by Tonk, Ganganagar and Alwar. Uttar Pradesh’s share rose from 11% to 17%. Haryana’s yield, 2,034 kg a hectare, is 40% above the national figure.
Soybean
The one crop whose yield has not grown at all: about 1,060 kg a hectare in both 2003-06 and 2023-26. All of its growth, from 7.7 to 13.6 million tonnes, came from area, which rose from 73 to 129 lakh hectares. Output peaked at 15.3 million tonnes in 2024-25 and fell to 12.6 million in 2025-26. Maharashtra has overtaken Madhya Pradesh, growing 43% against 41%; the two together grow 84%. Its leading districts are Buldhana, Latur and Ujjain.
Cotton
Output averaged 30.4 million bales of 170 kg in 2023-26, against 16.2 million in 2003-06, but remains below the 2019-20 record of 36.1 million and was 29.0 million in 2025-26. Most of the twenty-year gain in lint yield, from 329 to 435 kg a hectare, came in the early years of Bt cotton; an earlier piece on this site traced its fall since 2013. Maharashtra and Gujarat each grow a quarter, but Gujarat’s yield, 547 kg a hectare, is 69% higher than Maharashtra’s 323 kg. Telangana grows 18%.
Sugarcane
Output averaged 469 million tonnes in 2023-26 and reached a record 500 million in 2025-26, with yield up from 64 to 82 tonnes a hectare. Uttar Pradesh grows 47%, and Maharashtra’s share rose from 11% to 25% while Tamil Nadu’s fell from 10% to 3%. Tamil Nadu still has the highest yield, 105 tonnes a hectare. The leading districts are Kheri, Bijnor and Sitapur in Uttar Pradesh and Belagavi in Karnataka.
What it adds up to
Three patterns run through the sixteen crops. The fastest growers, maize and moong, are the crops where both land and yield expanded, pulled by new demand from ethanol and poultry feed in maize’s case. The crops with the most room to grow output without more land are those with the widest gaps between their best and worst states: jowar, maize, moong, urad and bajra. And the crops that matter most for price stability, the irrigated cereals, are also the steadiest harvests, while the rain-fed oilseeds and pulses swing by a fifth or more in a typical year.
Sources and method. UPAG (upag.gov.in), Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare: all-India area, production and yield, 1966-67 to 2025-26 (third advance estimates for 2025-26); state-wise area, production and yield, 1997-98 to 2025-26; district-wise production, 2015-16 to 2024-25 (district shares use the 2022-23 to 2024-25 average). Growth decomposition: ln(P1/P0) = ln(A1/A0) + ln(Y1/Y0) on three-year averages, expressed as annual rates over twenty years. All data, code and outputs: github.com/herrrickshaw/india-mandi-arrivals (analysis/crop_profiles.py, analysis/crop_charts.py). This post is AI-assisted analysis of public data, not investment advice.
About this article: Researched, written and edited by Umashankar Triplicane Dwarakanathan, with AI research assistance; every figure is meant to trace to the primary source cited. See the Editorial Policy for how sourcing, AI use and corrections work.
