Drought in some parts not to threaten agriculture output

How do the winter crops look like? How convinced are you of yet another year of record foodgrain production?

Crop condition is excellent. Recent rainfall has been very beneficial for the crops and also for farmers as they save money on irrigation. Areas under wheat and paddy are up. Going by the position as of now, I am quite confident we will be achieving our targets of 102 million tonne for rice, 84 million tonne for wheat and 17 million tonne for pulses, and overall, 245 million tonne for foodgrain in 2011 (crop year through June). It will be of help for food security.

Compared with the last year, there may be some dip in oilseed production because of late rains and lack of rain in parts of Maharashtra and some amount of drought in Karnataka.

Last year, too, we witnessed drought or flood-like conditions in around 150 districts across the country (nearly one-fourth of India), but despite that we achieved a bumper grain output of 241.56 million tonne.

So, for the country as a whole, I am looking forward to another record crop this year.

What about coarse cereals?

... contd.