Kharif acreage down 2% but cotton planting up by 6%, Till date, farmers have sown a total of 975 lakh hectares (LH), nearly 2 percent lower than 998 LH planted in the corresponding week of previous Kharif season. Among the crops that reported higher areas are cotton, soybean, maize, bajra, and arhar. Increase in planting in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Telangana has helped the total cotton area to go up to 124 LH — nearly 6 percent more than the 117 LH sown in the same week last year. Similarly, both Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra reported higher area under soybean crop, helping oilseeds to surpass the area planted during the same week in the previous season. Even though groundnut sowing picked up in Gujarat, the key growing State, the total area is down by nearly 2 percent because of poor sowing in Rajasthan and Karnataka.