Backed by good monsoon rains last year, the total foodgrain production in India is estimated at record 3322.98 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) during 2023-24 which is higher by 26.11 LMT than the production of food grains of 3296.87 LMT achieved during 2022-23. The Ministry of Agriculture’s data released on Wednesday shows food grain production witnessed record increase due to good production of Rice, Wheat and Shree Anna.The final estimate for 2023-24 shows an increase of 2.61 million tonne from the previous year’s 329.6 million tonne, the ministry said in a statement. The foodgrains basket comprises rice, wheat, coarse cereals, millets and pulses.
Interestingly, during 2023-24, there were drought-like conditions in southern states, including Maharashtra and prolonged dry spell during August especially in Rajasthan. The moisture stress from the drought also affected the Rabi season. This mainly impacted production of pulses, coarse cereals, soybean and cotton.
“Total Rice production is estimated at record 1378.25 LMT. It is higher by 20.70 LMT than previous year’s Rice production of 1357.55 LMT. The Wheat production is estimated at record 1132.92 LMT. It is higher by 27.38 LMT than previous year’s wheat production of 1105.54 LMT and production of Shree Anna is estimated at 175.72 LMT as compared to 173.21 LMT during previous year,” the agriculture ministry said in a statement.
However, pulses production declined to 24.24 million tonne from 26.05 million tonne and oilseeds output fell to 39.66 million tonne from 41.35 million tonne. The ministry attributed the decline in pulses, coarse cereals, soybean and cotton production to “drought-like conditions in southern states, including Maharashtra and prolonged dry spell during August especially in Rajasthan”.
Sugarcane production decreased to 453.15 million tonne from 490.53 million tonne, and cotton output fell to 32.52 million bales (1 bale equals to 170 kg) from 33.66 million bales.
“These estimates have been primarily prepared on the basis of information received from States/ UTs. The crop area has been validated and triangulated with information received from Remote Sensing, Weekly Crop Weather Watch Group and other agencies. Crop yields estimates are majorly based on Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs) conducted nationwide. The process of recording CCEs has been re-engineered with the introduction of the Digital General Crop Estimation Survey (DGCES), which was rolled out in major States during the 2023-24 agricultural years. The new system has ensured the transparency and robustness of the yield estimates,” the ministry said.
India is the world’s largest producer of milk, pulses and jute, and ranks as the second largest producer of rice, wheat, sugarcane, groundnut, vegetables, fruit and cotton. It is also one of the leading producers of spices, fish, poultry, livestock and plantation crops.
