Agriculture and allied activities clocked a gross value added (GVA) growth of 3.6 per cent in the first quarter of FY27, down from 4.4 per cent registered during the same period last financial year, latest data released by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) on Monday showed.
The drop could be due to the impact of low production in animal husbandry and livestock sectors that were impacted by flooding and extreme heat from April to June, experts said.
“This (impact of livestock sector on GVA) is all the more possible because usually in the April to June period, agriculture activities are low across India and mostly residual crop comes into the market,” said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Bank of Baroda. He said the actual impact of low monsoon on agriculture and allied activities’ GVA for FY27 will be felt in the coming quarters.
“Our estimate is that full-year agriculture and allied activities GVA in FY27 could be around 3.5-4 per cent, which is in line with the long-term trend of the sector but with a distinct downward bias,” Sabnavis said. The downward bias was due to the fact that despite revival in rains, kharif acreage would continue to be lower than last year. This would mean that though it might improve due to late rains, the backlog would not be recovered, he added.
Meanwhile, the data also showed that at current prices, the GVA growth in first quarter of FY27 was 7.5 per cent up from 4.7 per cent during the same period last financial year. In the fourth quarter of FY26 (January-March), agriculture and allied activities had clocked a GVA growth of 3.9 per cent in constant prices.
The southwest monsoon as on August 30 was almost 14 per cent below average cumulatively across India with eastern and southern peninsular India recording a deficit of almost 26 and 24 per cent, respectively, from June 1 to August 30, 2026.
The rains were more than 36 per cent less than normal in June which sharply pulled down kharif acreages. But, a strong pick up in July narrowed down the deficits.
Meanwhile, latest data from the department of agriculture (as on August 28, 2026) showed that sowing of kharif crops has been completed in around 109 million hectares of land, which is just around 1.7 per cent less than the area covered during the same period last year and almost 3 per cent lower than the normal acreage. Sowing for most crops is now almost complete across India.