Workers sift wheat before filling in sacks at the market yard of the Agriculture Product Marketing Committee (APMC) on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India, May 16, 2022.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare released on Tuesday the second advance estimate of the production of major crops. The Centre expects a record foodgrain production of 3235.54 Lakh Tonnes in 2022-24 of rice, wheat, and maize also of pulses such as gram, moong and winter crop mustard and sugarcane.
Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said the increase in production is a result of the hard work of farmers and scientists and concerted government policies. Mr. Tomar added that there would be a further increase in the production and use of coarse grains/nutritious grains in the coming years. The production of rice is estimated at 1308.37 Lakh Tonnes, which is an increase of more than three lakh tonnes than the target and about 14 lakh tonnes higher than the production in 2021-22.
Similarly, in wheat, the estimation is the production of about 1121.82 Lakh Tonnes, which is a record. Last year the production was 1077.42 Lakh Tonnes. The farmers are expecting a better price for wheat this time due to the global situation emerged after the war in Ukraine.
For nutritious and coarse cereals, the expectation is the production of 527.26 Lakh Tonnes, an increase of more than 16 Lakh Tonnes than 2021-22.
In pulses too, the Centre expects a record production of 278.10 Lakh Tonnes. This is an increase of more than five Lakh Tonnes than last year. Gram remained the favourite pulse crop of farmers as the expectation is to produce 136.32 Lakh Tonnes, a record production, in this season.
In the production of total of nine oilseeds too the Centre envisages a record production of 400.01 Lakh Tonnes. The target was 413.45 Lakh Tonnes and last year, the production was 379.63 Lakh Tonnes.
Cotton production can reach 337.23 Lakh bales (of 170 kg each), which is less than the target of 370 Lakh Tonnes. In the case of sugarcane, the expectation is 4687.89 Lakh Tonnes. The target was 4150 Lakh Tonnes and last year, the production was 4394.25 Lakh Tonnes.