Receding waters in flood-affected regions of Bihar, Odisha, and Karnataka have helped in recovering area under paddy cultivation, narrowing from last week's shortfall of 1.75 million hectares to just one million ha. Farmers in these areas planted short-duration varieties of paddy to compensate for crop damage due to the floods. As sowing recovered after the flood, the acreage under Kharif crops has almost touched last year's levels of around 103 million ha.