China vs India: Cereals, primary — Area harvested

China
100.58 million ha
in 2024
India
107.67 million ha
in 2024
China rank
3rd
India rank
1st

Cereals, primary — Area harvested over time

  • China
  • India
025.0M50.0M75.0M100.0M196119922024

How they compare

India currently reports 107.67 million ha against 100.58 million ha in China, a difference of 7.09 million ha.

That makes India's figure about 1.1 times China's.

The two have swapped places 4 times across 64 shared years of data; in 1961 it was India ahead.

China ranks 3rd and India ranks 1st of 178 countries.

India has averaged higher in every one of the 7 decades both report.

Head to head by decade

Decade China India Difference Ahead
1960s 91.72 million ha 95.08 million ha 3.36 million ha India
1970s 97.03 million ha 101.56 million ha 4.53 million ha India
1980s 91.42 million ha 103.67 million ha 12.25 million ha India
1990s 91.76 million ha 100.42 million ha 8.65 million ha India
2000s 83.62 million ha 99.05 million ha 15.43 million ha India
2010s 96.91 million ha 98.64 million ha 1.73 million ha India
2020s 99.59 million ha 102.42 million ha 2.84 million ha India

Averages of every year both report within each decade.

Frequently asked questions

Which has higher cereals, primary — area harvested, China or India?
India, at 107.67 million ha against 100.58 million ha in China as of 2024.
What is the difference in cereals, primary — area harvested between China and India?
7.09 million ha, with India ahead.
How many years of comparable data are there for China and India?
64 years are reported by both, from 1961 to 2024.
How do China and India rank globally for cereals, primary — area harvested?
China ranks 3rd and India ranks 1st of 178 countries.
Where does this data come from?
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, published as Cereals, primary — Area harvested. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.

Individual pages

Share, cite or embed this page

Cite this page

China vs India: Cereals, primary — Area harvested. Statizoid, drawing on Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved 19 August 2026, from https://agriculture.statizoid.com/compare/cereals-primary-area-harvested/china/india/

Embed or link this data

Paste this into a page to link back to these figures. The data itself is free to reuse under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (FAO); please keep the attribution.

<a href="https://agriculture.statizoid.com/compare/cereals-primary-area-harvested/china/india/">China vs India: Cereals, primary — Area harvested</a> — Statizoid

About this data

Indicator
Cereals, primary — Area harvested
Unit
ha
Source
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Licence
CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (FAO)
Coverage
226 places, 12,898 data points, 1961–2024
Last refreshed

Crop and livestock statistics are recorded for 278 products, covering the following categories: 1) CROPS PRIMARY: Cereals, Citrus Fruit, Fibre Crops, Fruit, Oil Crops, Oil Crops and Cakes in Oil Equivalent, Pulses, Roots and Tubers, Sugar Crops, Treenuts and Vegetables. Data are expressed in terms of area harvested, production quantity and yield. Cereals: Area and production data on cereals relate to crops harvested for dry grain only. Cereal crops harvested for hay or harvested green for food, feed or silage or used for grazing are therefore excluded. 2) CROPS PROCESSED: Beer of barley; Cotton lint; Cottonseed; Margarine, short; Molasses; Oil, coconut (copra); Oil, cottonseed; Oil, groundnut; Oil, linseed; Oil, maize; Oil, olive, virgin; Oil, palm; Oil, palm kernel; Oil, rapeseed; Oil, safflower; Oil, sesame; Oil, soybean; Oil, sunflower; Palm kernels; Sugar Raw Centrifugal; Wine. 3) LIVE ANIMALS: Animals live n.e.s.; Asses; Beehives; Buffaloes; Camelids, other; Camels; Cattle; Chickens; Ducks; Geese and guinea fowls; Goats; Horses; Mules; Pigeons, other birds; Pigs; Rabbits and hares; Rodents, other; Sheep; Turkeys. 4) LIVESTOCK PRIMARY: Beeswax; Eggs (various types); Hides buffalo, fresh; Hides, cattle, fresh; Honey, natural; Meat (ass, bird nes, buffalo, camel, cattle, chicken, duck, game, goat, goose and guinea fowl, horse, mule, Meat nes, meat other camelids, Meat other rodents, pig, rabbit, sheep, turkey); Milk (buffalo, camel, cow, goat, sheep); Offals, nes; Silk-worm cocoons, reelable; Skins (goat, sheep); Snails, not sea; Wool, greasy. 5) LIVESTOCK PROCESSED: Butter (of milk from sheep, goat, buffalo, cow); Cheese (of milk from goat, buffalo, sheep, cow milk); Cheese of skimmed cow milk; Cream fresh; Ghee (cow and buffalo milk); Lard; Milk (dry buttermilk, skimmed condensed, skimmed cow, skimmed dried, skimmed evaporated, whole condensed, whole dried, whole evaporated); Silk raw; Tallow; Whey (condensed and dry); Yoghurt.