Production of food grains in the 2023-24 crop year (July-June) is estimated to decline by 6% to 309.34 million tonne (MT), from 329 MT in previous crop year, because of decline in rice and pulses output, the agriculture ministry said on Friday.
As per the second advance estimate of foodgrains production, rice output is projected to decline 123.8 MT from 125 MT in the previous crops year because of patchy monsoon rains last season.
However, this projection of rice output does not include summer crop output, which will be reflected in the third advance estimate of food grains production to be released in June.
Officials said while harvesting of rabi crops has commenced, the food grains production estimate for the current crop year will be revised later.
“These figures are subject to change in the successive estimates on the receipt of better yield estimates based on crop cutting experiments,” according to an official statement.
The target for the foodgrain production for the current crop was 332 MT.
The output of wheat, the key rab crop, is estimated at 112 MT, which is marginally higher from the previous crop year.
In case of pulses, output of gram, which has a share of around 48% of the total pulse output is estimated at 12.16 MT, marginally lower from previous crop year.
Output of tur is estimated at 3.33 MT, similar to last year’s output of 33.12 MT.