With weathermen forecasting a normal monsoon this time, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) hopes to see a total foodgrain production of 270 million tonnes (mt) this year.
“The IMD predicts a normal monsoon this year and we should be having good rainfall. The foodgrain production in the country has come down by 10-12 mt in the last two years because of drought,” ICAR Director-General Trilochan Mohapatra has said.
Mohapatra, who is also the Secretary of the Union Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), told Business Line that the country could achieve an average 2.5 tonnes per hectare in a normal kharif season.
He said that normal rainfall in kharif would mean a lot for the country that grows 90 per cent of the annual acreage of 44 million hectares in a year.
He said the ICAR had prepared a climate vulnerability atlas to take up contingency plans and let farmers choose relevant methods for mitigating the ill effects of changes in temperature. The rain-fed and dryland areas were given special focus.
As many as 19 climate resilient cereals, 20 pulses and 24 oilseed varieties were released in the last two years.