July 23, 2013

India's grain production falls nearly four million tonnes

Following a record output of almost 260 million tonnes in the crop year 2012/13, India's grain production comprising rice, wheat and coarse cereals dropped nearly 4 million tonnes to 255.36 million tonnes in the last crop year ended June 30, 2013.

The agriculture ministry, which released the fourth advance estimates of grain production, nevertheless hopes for a bumper harvest during the current crop year with sowing now spread over 620 lakh (620,000,000 hectares), in comparison to 506.21 lakh (50,621,000 hectares) during the same period of the last season.

The estimates indicated a production of 104.40 tonnes of rice, against 105.31 tonnes, respectively during the season before.

Similarly, wheat production is estimated at 92.46 tonnes against 94.88 tonnes last year and coarse cereals at 40.06 tonnes against 42.04 tonnes last year.

In the case of oilseeds, however, there was perceptible increase with 31.01 tonnes against 29.80 tonnes last year. Similarly, pulses production was up at 18.45 tonnes against 17.09 tonnes last year.