March 29, 2012

India's wheat output likely to reach over 90 million tonnes

Aided by favourable weather and better productivity, India's wheat output will likely exceed the government's initial estimate and reach an all-time high of more than 90 million tonnes this crop year, Farm Secretary P.K. Basu said Wednesday (Mar 28).

In early February, the farm ministry had estimated wheat output at 88.31 million tonnes in the crop year that started July 1, 2011. The government is likely to revise the estimate when it issues updated crop estimates next month.

Higher production will not only help the government roll out an ambitious food-security programme and stabilise prices, but also enable India, the world's second-largest wheat producer, to continue exporting the grain.

India lifted a ban on wheat and rice exports in September after three years due to comfortable stocks. It has since exported around 600,000 tonnes of wheat as of mid-March, mainly to Asian countries.

Yellow rust, or stripe rust, had attacked the wheat crop in small pockets of northern India in January, but measures to prevent it from spreading have been successful and the crop is ready for harvest, Basu said.

Unlike last year, there has been no grain shrinkage as the temperature has remained cool even during the crop's maturing stage in February and March, Basu said.

In 2010-11, a rise in temperatures just ahead of harvest had clipped the wheat output by around two million tonnes to 86.87 million tonnes.

Basu said India was set to harvest a record of at least 250.42 million tonnes of food grains in 2011-12, up from 244.78 million tonnes in 2010-11. The farm ministry has been trying to boost the production of both rice and wheat by expanding their cultivation outside the grain heartland in the north.

Most programmes would target the country's eastern region, which has abundant fertile land but lacks irrigation facilities, Basu said.