March 27, 2012

 

India's grain production just half of that in China

 

 

According to a data, India's productivity of major food crops such as wheat, rice, corn and pulses is almost half of that in neighbouring China.

 

In fact, yield of staple grains like corn and pulses in India is even less than that of countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar, the data presented in Parliament by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar last week said.

 

The productivity of rice in India is 3,264 kilogrammes per hectare, while in China it is 6,548 kilogrammes a hectare, the data compiled by UN's agriculture body FAO for the year 2010 said.

 

It is also high in Bangladesh at 4,182 kilogrammes/hectare and Myanmar at 4,123 kilogrammes per hectare.

 

China also tops the list in wheat with yields of 4,748 kilogrammes per hectare, whereas for India it stands at 3,264 kilogrammes a hectare.

 

India stands at the bottom in terms of corn and pulses productivity compared to China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

 

Bangladesh leads the tally in terms of corn yields with 5,837 kilogrammes per hectare, followed by China at 5,459 kilogrammes a hectare, Myanmar 3,636 kilogrammes/hectare, Pakistan 3,558 kilogrammes per hectare, Nepal 2,118 kilogrammes every hectare, Sri Lanka 2,806 kilogrammes a hectare and in India it is 1,958 kilogrammes/hectare.

 

In pulses, China tops the list with 1,567 kilogrammes per hectare followed by Myanmar at 1,114 kilogrammes a hectare, Bangladesh at 871 kilogrammes/hectare, Nepal 791 kilogrammes per hectare, Pakistan 762 kilogrammes every hectare, while in India it stands at 694 kilogrammes per hectare.

 

Pawar said that productivity depends on factors like rainfall, extent of inputs such as fertiliser, micro-nutrients, seed replacement rate, duration of crop, extent of area sown under any crop and the nature of lands used for cultivation.

 

To enhance the agricultural production, the government is working on frontier areas of research like marker assisted selection, stem cell research, nanotechnology, cloning genome resource conservation, Pawar said.

 

The National Institute of Abiotic Research Management has been established in Maharashtra to address issues related to impending climate change, he added.

 

That apart, the National Institute of Biotic Stress Management and Indian Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology are in the pipeline for undertaking high quality research, the minister added.