The Hindu Business Line : Ministry pegs foodgrain output at record 219.32 mt

New Delhi, Feb. 7 Even as the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) has estimated a lower growth of 2.6 per cent for the country’s farm sector in 2007-08 — against the 3.8 per cent of the previous year – the Union Agriculture Ministry is singing a different tune. According to it, total foodgrain production during the current fiscal will touch an all-time-high of 219.32 million tonnes (mt) against 217.28 mt in 2006-07.

The Ministry’s ‘Second Advance Estimate’ of crop production also point at record harvests of rice (94.08 mt), maize (16.78 mt), soyabean (9.45 mt) and cotton (23.38 million bales of 170 kg each).

Climate favourable for wheat

Moreover, even the size of the current wheat crop (to be harvested from March-end) is projected at a pretty decent 74.81 mt, with the Secretary, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Dr P.K. Mishra, claiming it to be a “conservative estimate”. This is in spite of very poor winter rains and a considerable area being sown late. But Dr Mishra held that the current cold weather conditions were very favourable for even the late sown crop and “I think we will (eventually) even cross 75 mt)”.

The Ministry has simultaneously revised upwards the wheat production estimate for 2006-07 from 74.89 mt to 75.81 mt. The latter is the highest ever since the 76.37 mt level attained in 1999-2000.

Even in rice, the record 94.08 mt projected for 2007-08 (including 81.52 mt in kharif and 12.56 mt in rabi) comes in the face of reports of the crop suffering damage due to floods in the eastern region and parts of Tamil Nadu. Moreover, domestic rice prices have spurted by Rs 2-3 a kg in the last one year.

Coarse cereals

But the real success stories have been cotton, maize and soyabean, which have all seen a steady increase in production due to a combination of remunerative prices and technology (particularly Bt cotton). On the other hand, output of other coarse cereals, pulses and oilseeds (specially groundnut and rapeseed-mustard) have not gone up enough in the proportion to the rise in population.

The sugarcane crop, too, is expected to decline this year due to the fall in sugar realisations, which has led to mills defaulting on payments to farmers and the latter, in turn, planting less or not investing enough on the crop.

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