A marginal drop in wheat area this year in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Bihar has been compensated by a significant rise of over 8 lakh hectares (lh) in Madhya Pradesh and about 4 lh in Rajasthan. The increase in acreage in MP and Rajasthan took the pan-India coverage to a record high.
However, the overall production of wheat will depend on the yield in M.P., Rajasthan and Gujarat where the crop matures a little earlier and the temperature in February, the grain-filling period, plays a crucial role in yield. Total wheat acreage stood at an all time high 334.17 lh in 2025-26, compared with 328.04 lh last year, up by 2 per cent.
Among the top six major states that account for nearly 90 per cent of the national coverage under wheat, the acreage in UP was 2 per cent lower at 94.13 lh, Punjab 1 per cent down at 34.89 lh and Bihar 13 per cent lower at 19.92 lh. But, the acreage has increased 11 per cent to 85.73 lh in Madhya Pradesh, 12 per cent to 35.49 lh in Rajasthan and 3 per cent to 24.48 lh in Haryana.
Gujarat too up
Farmers in Gujarat too have raised the wheat area by 3.3 per cent to 13.24 lh, but in Maharashtra they have cut acreage by 3.3 per cent to 11.49 lh.
“Last year, the government had relaxed minimum quality norms of wheat in all districts of Rajasthan and four districts of Madhya Pradesh to help enable farmers sell their produce at the minimum support price (MSP) to notified agencies during procurement. These two states and Gujarat are more at risk from any temperature rise due to their locations,” said S K Singh, an agriculture scientist. However, he said with the adoption of more climate-resilient varieties, the risk of lower yield has been getting minimised every year.
The Food Ministry in April 2025 allowed wheat procurement in the Ujjain, Ratlam and Jhabua of districts Madhya Pradesh to avoid rejection of a particular variety (Pusa Mangal) due to “luster loss” by relaxing the Uniform Specifications up to 10 per cent without any value cut. “The relaxation will be a one-time measure to reduce the distress of farmers and shall not be used as a precedent in future,” it said.
Norms relaxed
Similarly, in March 2025, the Ministry allowed relaxation of norms in all districts of Rajasthan — Shrivelled and Broken grains upto 20 per cent and lustre loss upto 10 per cent. Both damaged and slightly damaged wheat upto 6 per cent was also allowed in Rajasthan due to impact of early heat wave and unseasonal rainfall on the wheat crop.
For the week ended January 21, the minimum temperature (in night) in all the wheat growing states were either normal or below normal whereas the maximum temperature (in day) was normal and not more than 28 Degree Celsius, except at a few districts of Maharashtra and Karnataka where it was 30 Degree.
The government has fixed a target of 119 million tonnes (mt) of wheat production in 2025-26, which will be harvested from April. The output was an all time high of 117.54 mt in 2024-25.
Published on January 23, 2026
