Amid scare of Covid-19 second wave which forced the States and Union Territories to impose lockdown like curbs, the Government on Friday set a record rice production target of 104.3 million tonne for the kharif season of 2021-22 crop year (July-June). However, the overall foodgrains production target for the full 2021-22 crop year is kept at 307.31 million tonne. This includes production of 151.43 million tonnes of food grains during kharif (summer) season and 155.88 million tonnes during rabi (winter) season. The targeted production is over 1.3% more than last year’s estimated food grain production of 303.34 million tonnes. Meanwhile, the government has asked five non-traditional onion growing states-Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh to increase the area sown under the crop by 9,900 hectares in the forthcoming kharif season to avoid any price rise situation.
As per the target set up at the kharif conference 2021 on Friday, the production of rice has been set up at 121.1 million tonnes while the output of wheat has been estimated at 110 million tonnes. The production of coarse grains like maize, millers and bajra has been set up at 51.21 million tonnes while output of pulses has been estimated at 25 million tonnes. Whereas the production target for coarse cereals is kept at 37.31 million tonne and oilseeds at 26.20 million tonne for the kharif season of 2021-22.
On agri-inputs, Malhotra said the requirement of urea has been assessed at 177.53 lakh tonne, di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) at 65.18 lakh tonne, Muriate of Potash (MoP) at 20.24 lakh tonne and NPK fertilisers at 61.87 lakh tonne for the kharif season of this year. In the case of seeds, the availability is estimated to be in surplus as far as most kharif crops are concerned, except for maize and soybean.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, rice is the main crop grown in the kharif season, sowing of which begins with the onset of southwest monsoon from June. In the kharif season last crop year, rice production was estimated to be at 103.75 million tonne against the target of 102.60 million tonne, as per the agriculture ministry’s second advance estimate.
Inaugurating the Conference, the Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar appreciated the efforts of farmers for the record production for food grains (303.34 million tonnes), which is over 1.96% higher than the previous year’s output (297.50 Million Tonnes).