Helped by good and dispersed monsoon rainfall, production food grains such as rice, wheat, pulses and coarse cereals are estimated to have touched an all time high 305.43 million tonne (MT) in 2020-21 crop year (July-June). The output has been scaling new heights in the previous four years, too
According to the third advance estimate of agriculture crops released on Tuesday, the country’s total foodgrains output this year has increased by 2.7% from 2019-20 and it is also 2.09 MT higher from the second advance estimate released in February. Record output is also estimated for each individual crops such as rice, wheat, pulses, coarse cereals, oilseeds and cotton during the 2020-21, agriculture ministry said in a statement.
Rice and wheat production is estimated to be a record 121.46 MT and 108.75 MT, respectively this year. Oilseeds output is pegged at 36.57 MT and that of pulses at 25.56 MT. Coarse/nutri cereals production is estimated to have jumped to 49.66 MT while cotton harvest has soared to 36.49 million bales(each bale weighs 170 kg).
Though sugarcane production is pegged higher at 392.8 MT from previous year’s 370.5 MT, it is still lower than record 405.42 MT achieved during 2018-19. Output of jute/mesta is estimated to drop marginally to 9.62 million bales (180 kg each). in 2020-21 crop year, from 9.88 million bales in the previous year.