January 9, 2004

India Set to Harvest Bumper Crop

India is set to harvest their largest wheat crop ever this March, a senior Ministry of Agriculture official said on Thursday during a luncheon meeting hosted by Agriculture Minister Rajnath Singh.

The previous highest wheat crop was 76.3 million metric tons in the financial year 1999-2000.

"The exact production of wheat will be decided by how the weather is over the next few weeks. If it's cool and sunny, then the production will definitely be very large. In any case, it seems safe to say at this time that we are headed for the highest-ever wheat harvest," said the official.

The country's wheat production in the last financial year ended March 31, 2003 was 66.5 million tons.

At the luncheon meeting, Singh told reporters that India's total food grains production for the current financial year was expected to be around 220 million tons, also the highest-ever output.

India's previous highest food grains production was 212 million tons in 2001-2002, while last financial year's production was only around 182 million tons because of scanty rains.

India defines food grains as rice, wheat, coarse cereals, corn and barley.

The country's food grains production is expected to be a bumper one because of good monsoon rains from June to September.

The country has two major crops - the summer sown crop which is harvested in November and the winter sown crop, harvested in February to March.