Best kharif crops in Gujarat for 2026 — a practical farmer's guide
Cotton, groundnut, bajra, pulses, sesame — how to pick the right kharif crop by soil, water, and the 2026 monsoon outlook.
The kharif call you make in June decides your year. Pick wrong, and even a perfect monsoon can't bail you out. Pick right, and an average season still pays.
Match the crop to your soil and water
Black cotton soil with assured drip — Shankar-6 or BG-II Bt cotton remains the highest cash earner in Saurashtra. On medium-light soils with bore-well drip, groundnut (TG-37A, GJG-31) usually beats cotton on net margin once input costs are counted.
Rain-fed sandy loam in north Gujarat? Bajra and pulses (moong, tur, urad) outperform anything that needs irrigation. Sesame is the dark horse — low input, decent price, hates waterlogging.
What 2026 looks like
IMD's first long-range forecast points to a near-normal southwest monsoon, slightly delayed onset over Saurashtra. Farmers in Junagadh and Amreli are leaning to staggered cotton sowing — first plot mid-June, second plot end-June — to spread the risk.
Mandi sentiment for groundnut has firmed since February. If you have storage and patience, groundnut may pay better than cotton this year on smaller plots.
Quick decision matrix
Heavy black soil + assured water → Bt cotton. Medium-light soil + drip → groundnut. Rain-fed light soil → bajra + pulses intercrop. Saline patches → cotton with gypsum prep, or sesame.
Whatever you pick — split the area. Two crops, two plots, two harvest windows. One bad month shouldn't take the whole year.
