Govt Sets Foodgrain Production Target at 298 Million Tonnes for 2020-21 Crop Year

The Union Agriculture Ministry has asked the States to plan for a total foodgrain production of 298 million tonnes (mt) for the crop year 2020-21, increasing mainly the output of pulses and coarse cereals.

These targets were given to State Agriculture Ministers and officials who participated in the national kharif conference organised by the Ministry through video conferencing.

The target for rice and wheat for the coming year has been set more or less same as 2019-20’s estimated production of 117.47 mt and 106.21 mt respectively while for coarse cereals and pulses target has been increased by nearly 3.5 mt and 2.5 mt, respectively, to 48.7 mt and 25.6 mt, said Agriculture Commissioner Mr SK Malhotra at the conference, which was chaired by Agriculture Minister Mr Narendra Singh Tomar.

Meanwhile, there has also been increase in targets for oilseeds and cotton to 36.64 mt (as against the production estimate of 34.19 mt this year) and 36 million bales (one bale is 170 kg) as against 34.89 million bales in 2019-20.

Mr Malhotra also added that there is sufficient availability of seeds in India for most of the crops, barring soyabean.

He added that India needs 27.23 quintals of soya seeds for the 2020 kharif season, though, the available quantity is around 24.03 lakh quintals.

The Ministry also estimated the requirement of urea for the forthcoming kharif season.

While the need of urea would go up to 166.88 lakh tonnes (lt) from the total sales of 155.73 lt in the last kharif season, the requirement of DAP would be 51.61 lt (50.17 lt), MOP 20.22 lt (15.81 lt), NPK 52.95 lt (50.88 lt) and SSP of 26.42 lt (22.10 lt).

Source: IBEF

Image Courtesy: Economic Times