Like with rice-wheat, many economists and policy analysts conflate Punjab’s agriculture with that of Haryana. Both states are seen to embody the best and worst of the Green Revolution, helping India turn self-sufficient, if not surplus, in rice and wheat production and also paying a steep environmental price through mono-cropping of the two cereals. But just as wheat and rice are grains apart, the field realities are somewhat different for Punjab and Haryana, the latter of which goes to the polls for its state assembly on October 5. The Punjab story Rice-wheat monoculture — farmers growing just the two crops during the kharif (monsoon) and rabi (winter-spring) seasons respectively, year after year — is an apt description for Punjab’s agriculture. Table 1 shows the average share of rice in Punjab’s total crop area sown during the kharif season over the last five years (2019-20 to 2024-25) at 86.8 per cent. The average share of wheat during rabi is as high as 97.9 per cent. In absolute terms, the state’s area under rice cultivation has risen …