Written by Partha Sarathi Biswas Updated: September 21, 2025 12:53 PM IST 3 min readKhariff 2025 for Maharashtra had started on a good note. Farmers had sown crops over 1.47 crore hectares as against the 1.45 crore hectares that the state had reported during last kharif.Yuvraj Patil, from village Hadgaon in Ardhrapur taluka of Nanded, has written off his soybean crop completely. First, it was the unprecedented rains in August, which flooded almost the whole of Nanded, and then in the first two weeks of September came the heavy rainfall which proved to be the last straw. “There will be practically nothing left to harvest – the entire crop is almost washed off,” he said.In the neighbouring district of Latur, farmers had hoped they would get a good crop of soybean – but the first week of September has ruined what was to be a good crop. Ramesh Patil, a farm leader from Chakur taluka of the district said between August and September, everything turned turtle.“Just two days of heavy rain in August and a few more spells in September was all it took to completely wipe out the crop. At present we are calculating the losses – we require urgent help from the government,” he said.Khariff 2025 for Maharashtra had started on a good note. Farmers had sown crops over 1.47 crore hectares as against the 1.45 crore hectares that the state had reported during last kharif.Overall, the crop condition was supposed to good as May had seen unprecedented rainfall. Maize was the crop of choice, with 14.52 lakh hectare of area, which last year was at 11.21 lakh hectare. Soybean and cotton had reported lower than last year’s sowing. While soyabean was sown over 49.72 lakh hectare (51.52 lakh hectares of last year), cotton was sown over 38.88 lakh hectare (40.81 lakh hectare) this year. Most other crop had reported normal sowing.However, the kharif season saw large scale crop damage between August and September. June and July had seen normal rainfall but August and September saw heavy spells. In case of Nanded, August was an exceptionally wet month, with cloud burst like situations being reported. Around eight people had lost their lives in Nanded when the Lendi barrage had overflown. The agriculture department had in August estimated over 14 lakh hectare of area was damaged due to the rains. In September, 8.5 lakh hectare had been effected. Most of the damage was reported in Marathwada region, with crops like soybean, cotton, tur, maize, etc, being most affected.Soybean Processors Association (SOPA) – an Indore based soybean processors body — had conducted a survey about the crop condition. In their survey, the body noted that Maharashtra has reported the maximum damage to the standing crop. Around 11 per cent of the crop is in poor condition, while only 21 per cent of the crop is good. Farmers have demanded immediate help to tide them over this crisis.Click here to join Express Pune WhatsApp channel and get a curated list of our stories© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd