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In what could perhaps have some softening impact on runaway food inflation, the country will produce record levels of wheat, pulses, cotton and maize this year.
According to the second advance estimates of crop output for 2010-11, released by the Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, here on Wednesday, a record 81.47 million tonnes (mt) of wheat is expected to be harvested this time. That makes it the third successive year of over 80 mt of grain production, which will start arriving in the markets from next month.
New highs
Even more significant is the pulses output, which, for the first time, will cross the 15-mt mark and touch 16.51 mt. Likewise, production of maize (which, along with cotton, has been one of the success stories in the last decade) is estimated at 20.03 mt, thereby scaling the 20-mt barrier.
Cotton, too, will see an unprecedented output of 339.27 lakh bales, though this is partly a result of a change in estimation methods. The Agriculture Ministry's figures have traditionally been lower than that of the Cotton Advisory Board (CAB). The revised methodology has meant that Krishi Bhawan's estimate of 339.27 lakh bales for 2010-11 is higher than the CAB's 329 lakh bales.
Apart from these major crops, production of tur (arhar or pigeon-pea) and sesamum are also reckoned to touch new highs of 3.18 mt and 0.83 mt, respectively.
The other notable news is in sugarcane, where the Ministry has revised upwards the size of the 2010-11 crop to 336.698 mt, from the 324.912 mt in the first advance estimate. Whether this would translate into higher sugar production ? relative to the current official estimate of 245 lakh tonnes ? is to be seen.
Total output
Speaking to newspersons, Mr Pawar said that the total foodgrain output of 232.07 mt for this year would be only marginally below the 234.47 mt achieved in 2008-09.
?Such a high level of production will be achieved despite significant crop damage due to widespread drought in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal and the effects of cyclones, un-seasonal heavy rains and severe cold wave and frost conditions in several parts of the country,? the Minister noted.
He claimed that the Centre's ?focussed interventions? through schemes such as the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, National Food Security Mission and Accelerated Pulses Production Programme had led to an overall ?rejuvenation? of the country's agriculture sector.
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