July 15, 2013

India may hit record production of kharif crops in 2013-14

Boosted by favourable monsoon that led to the doubling of sowing area, India is likely to achieve record production of food grains and other crops in Kharif season of 2013-14, including rice, pulses, cotton, corn and soy.

"All kharif crops put together, acreage has reached 401.69 lakh (40,169,000) hectares as on July 5, as against 215.6 lakh (21,560,000) hectares in the same period last year. This is a very good picture. As of today, it looks like we will break all previous production records," Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said. Pawar noted that the sowing data is not final as planting operation would continue till August first week.

For the Kharif season, all-time high in food grains output was in 2011-12 at 131.27 million tonnes. However, the output fell in Kharif last year because of drought in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan.

The likely bumper production of Kharif crops would help the government in implementing food security programme and also in controlling prices.

"By and large, there is good rain everywhere and farmers have started sowing. This is a good indication. I will be able to give final data on sowing by the second week of August," Pawar said.

The country has received 21% of excessive rainfall since the onset of the monsoon this year with 20 sub-divisions registering surplus rains.

"The figures are indicating that sowing operations are in full swing. By and large, rains seem to be good in most parts of the country. If this continues up to August, India will be a major producer in most crops," Pawar observed.

According to the latest data, the area under coverage for oilseeds has increased sharply to 110.27 lakh (11,027,000) hectares till July 5, from 26.52 lakh (2,652,000) hectares in the year-ago period.

The acreage of coarse cereals has gone up to 65.55 lakh (6,555,000) hectares from 23.01 (2,301,000) lakh hectares. Rice area has increased to 69.17 lakh (6,917,000) hectares from 56.77 lakh (5,677,000) hectares.