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The government has set a foodgrain target of 285.2 million tonnes (mt) for 2018-19, which is marginally higher than the expected production in 2017-18, the agriculture ministry said here on Tuesday.
As per the fourth advance estimates released by the Government last month, the foodgrain harvest in 2017-18 would be around 284.83 mt, aided by record production in staple as well as other mainline crops.
While 2018-19 rice production target is 113 mt as against 112.91 mt projected for the previous year, wheat yield is set at 100 mt, a touch higher than 99.7 mt expected in 2017-18.
“Cutting across all States, standing kharif crop looks very good, indicating the harvest this year is going to be good,” agriculture secretary Shobhana K Pattanayak said on the sidelines of the national conference on agriculture for rabi campaign 2018-19.
Pulses, oilseeds cultivation
According to him, the ministry has drawn up a plan to bring an additional 1.8 million hectares of rice fallow land under pulses and oilseeds cultivation during rabi season. This is in addition to 1.2 million hectares rice fallow area brought under oilseeds and pulses cultivation last rabi season, and thus the total fallow area used for the rabi cultivation would be three million hectares.
“There are about 11 million hectares fallow left a year – 8 million hectares in eastern parts of the country and 3 million hectares in the south,” said agriculture commissioner SK Malhotra. “The idea is to help use this land left unplanted during rabi season to grow crops which are important to us, such as oilseeds and pulses,” Malhotra said. The crops that are expected to be grown are pulses crops such as urad, moong and gram as well as mustard, linseed and sesamum as oil crops.
The pulses production targeted for 2018-19 is 25 mt, while oilseeds output in sight is 36 mt, nearly 15 per cent more than the expected production of 31.31 mt in 2017-18.
Pest attack
Even though fall army worm infestation in parts of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana may bring down maize output, the yield is expected to be around 28 mt, which is marginally lower than a record 28.72 mt eyed for 2017-18.
Similarly, the targeted cotton production in the current year is 35.5 million bales of 170 kg each as against 34.9 million bales expected in 2017-18. The ministry, on the other hand, has anticipated a fall in sugarcane production to 355 mt, which is contrary to the expectations of industry. The sugarcane output in 2017-18 is estimated at 377 mt.
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