India’s wheat harvest seen higher but misses estimates

India’s wheat harvest is expected to rise in 2026 from a year earlier but fall short of initial estimates after unseasonal rains and hailstorms hit the maturing crop, trade and industry officials said.

- Reuters

India, the world’s biggest wheat producer after China, grows a single annual crop, sown in October-November and harvested in March and April. In recent years, late-February and early-March heat has tended to cut yields.

After years of weak output, production rebounded in 2025 on favourable weather, but a late-February heat spike again this year raised concerns.