India has the biggest cultivated space among the many BRICS nations, however its farms proceed to supply far much less grain per hectare than China, the bloc’s largest cereal producer, an evaluation of information offered within the BRICS Joint Statistical Publication launched August 18 confirmed.
Regardless that India’s yields of main cereals have risen steadily, they proceed to lag closely behind China.
India’s newest agriculture ministry estimates put rice yield at 2,915 kg per hectare, wheat at 3,591 kg/ha and maize at 3,824 kg/ha in 2025-26. China’s corresponding 2025 yields have been 7,205 kg/ha for rice, 5,940 kg/ha for wheat and 6,700 kg/ha for maize, in line with China’s Nationwide Bureau of Statistics. China harvested 660.2 million tonnes of cereals in 2025, greater than double India’s 324.8 million tonnes, the publication confirmed.
India has, nevertheless, been bettering . Between 2019-20 and 2025-26, its rice yield rose from 2,722 kg/ha to 2,915 kg/ha, wheat from 3,440 kg/ha to three,591 kg/ha, and maize from 3,006 kg/ha to three,824 kg/ha. Maize has recorded the sharpest enchancment, rising by about 27%, in contrast with roughly 7% for rice and 4% for wheat.
However the enchancment in yields has not translated into a gradual rise in cereal output. The BRICS publication reveals India’s cereal manufacturing falling from 332.05 million tonnes in 2024 to 324.79 million tonnes in 2025, a decline of about 2.2%. China, in distinction, elevated cereal manufacturing by 1.2% to 660.21 million tonnes in 2025.
Whereas the doc gives restricted knowledge for different nations, a comparability with Brazil reveals Brazil’s 2025 rice yield was 7,234 kg/ha, virtually 2.5 instances India’s, whereas its maize yield of 6,364 kg/ha was about 66% larger. Nonetheless, India’s wheat yield of three,591 kg/ha was larger than Brazil’s 3,230 kg/ha. Russia additionally recorded a decrease wheat yield of three,431 kg/ha in 2025.
The BRICS publication places India’s cultivated land at 154 million hectares, in contrast with 129 million hectares in China, 126 million hectares in Russia and 97 million hectares in Brazil.
The difficulty of decrease yields was additionally taken up on the BRICS Agriculture Ministers’ assembly in Indore in June. The joint declaration listed “low agricultural productiveness” among the many challenges going through BRICS agriculture, alongside local weather dangers, land and water degradation, biodiversity loss and supply-chain disruptions. The nations, as per the joint assertion, known as for cooperation on expertise, high quality inputs, analysis, mechanisation, digital agriculture and improved farm-level effectivity.