The Indian railways has agreed to provide additional rakes for transportation of fertilisers piled up in Kandla port to fasten the distribution of this key soil nutrient before sowing of kharif crops gather steam across the country.

Official sources said food and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar took up the issue with Railways minister Mamata Banerjee, following which Railways have agreed to provide 13 rakes daily for movement of fertiliser as against the earlier promised 6 rakes.

?This should considerably fasten the delivery time of fertilisers and clear the backlog from Kandla port,? a senior government official said. Sources said as much as 8 lakh tonne of fertilisers is lying at the Kandla port for want of proper transportation. ?We need about 320 rakes to clear the fertiliser from the port in one go,? the official added.

While the agriculture ministry has assured states of adequate supply of key inputs this kharif season, states like Karnataka and Maharashtra have been slow in lifting fertilisers from rail wagons supplied by the Centre.

After IMD predicted a normal monsoon this year, agriculture secretary PK Basu said on Wednesday that the country is targeting a record production of more than 100 million tonne of rice and 16.5 million tonne of pulses in 2010-11.

The sowing of kharif crops have already started in some parts of the country. According to data provided by the ministry of agriculture, till June 4, rice has been sown in around 623,000 hectares of land, almost 6% more than the same period last year area. Rice production was affected in the 2009-10 crop year due to a severe drought that hit almost half of the country.

Till June 4, the area sown under pulses increased by 19% to 95,400 hectare, compared with 80,300 hectare in the year-ago period. The area under main kharif pulses like arhar, urad and moong is more this year as compared to the same period last year.

Moong dal prices currently stand at Rs 94 per kg. Higher acreage for pulses augurs well for consumers, who have been paying very high prices for the commodity since last year.

The area under oilseeds is marginally down at 83,700 ha till June 4 as compared to 1,27,000 ha sown during the same period last year. The big rise has been in under sugarcane and cotton, the official statement showed.