Kharif, Rabi and Zaid: India's Crop Calendar

How India's farming year is organised around the monsoon, which crops grow in each season, and how one season's rain affects the next season's harvest.

Indian farming follows a calendar shaped by the monsoon. There are three main seasons.

Kharif: the monsoon season

Sowing: June to July, with the monsoon’s arrival.
Harvest: September to October.
Main crops: rice, maize, jowar, bajra, pulses like tur (pigeon pea) and moong, soybean, groundnut, cotton and sugarcane.

Kharif crops depend directly on monsoon rains, especially in rainfed areas.

Rabi: the winter season

Sowing: October to December.
Harvest: March to April.
Main crops: wheat, barley, mustard, chickpeas (gram) and other pulses.

Rabi crops depend on residual soil moisture, irrigation from reservoirs and groundwater, and winter rains. So a good monsoon helps the rabi crop too, by filling reservoirs and recharging aquifers.

Zaid: the summer season

Between rabi and kharif, roughly March to June.
Crops: watermelon, cucumber, vegetables and fodder, mostly with irrigation.

Economic rhythms

The crop calendar shapes:

Rural incomes: cash arrives after harvests, boosting spending around festivals like Diwali (after kharif) and in spring.
Labour demand: peaks at sowing and harvest, affecting wages and migration.
Food prices: prices often rise before harvests and fall after.
Credit: farmers borrow for inputs before sowing and repay after harvest.
Government procurement: rice is procured mainly after kharif, wheat after rabi.

Tracking the season

The agriculture ministry publishes weekly data on sowing progress during kharif, which markets and policymakers watch closely as an early sign of harvest size.

The farmer's year

A farmer in Punjab grows rice from June to October, then wheat from November to April. In between, he grows a short vegetable crop. His income peaks twice a year, after each harvest, and he borrows for seeds and fertiliser before each sowing.

Thinking only kharif crops depend on the monsoon

Rabi crops rely on reservoirs, groundwater and soil moisture recharged by the monsoon.

Key takeaways

Kharif crops are sown with the monsoon and harvested in autumn.
Rabi crops are sown in winter and harvested in spring.
Zaid crops grow in summer, mainly with irrigation.
The calendar shapes incomes, wages, prices, credit and procurement.