Shiva Shekhar, a 40-year-old farmer from Padavalapatna village in Mandya district's Nagamangala taluk, could not sow ragi this kharif. “I kept waiting for the rain but it never came, so I sowed cowpea instead, which is more drought-tolerant,” he said on September 16.
Karnataka is the largest ragi-producing state in the country. In 2025-26, India produced 2 million tonnes of ragi, of which 1.47 million tonnes came from Karnataka, according to the Third Advance Estimates for the year from the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. The state also accounted for about 73% of the area under ragi that year, at 979,000 hectares. Of that, Mandya—located about 40 km north of Mysuru—accounted for about 53,300 hectares.
