Winter Rice / Kharif Rice

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• India ranks second in the production and consumption of rice in the global market. The most of the production comes from kharif crops. The rainfed kharif crops are to a great extent depends on South West Monsoon.
• Kharif or Winter is the main rice growing season in the country. It is known as Winter Rice or Kharif Rice as per the harvesting time.
• The winter crop sowing takes place between June and October and harvesting is between November and April.
• This indicates the high dependence of the rice crop on the south-west monsoon which is occurs over the subcontinent from June through September.
• About 84% of the country's rice crop is grown in this season and generally, medium to long duration varieties are grown in this season.
• The normal area under kharif rice is about 403 lakh hectares till 2002.
• Winter rice is known by various names in India. For example: it is known as 'Aman' in West Bengal, 'Sali' in Assam, 'Sarrad' in Orissa, 'Agahani' in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, 'Sarava' in Andhra Pradesh, 'Mundakan' in Kerala and 'Samba/Thaladi' in Tamil Nadu.
• Kharif rice production typically accounts for 87 to 88 percent of India's total production. The 2003 monsoon favored most of the Kharif rice areas.
• The Kharif rice crop is sown around the beginning of the Southwest Monsoon and harvested in the autumn months.