The country’s food grain production rose marginally to 332.2 million tonnne (MT) in the 2023-24 crop year (July-June) from 329.68 MT, because of rise in rice and wheat output, the agriculture ministry on Wednesday said.
Rice and wheat production rose by 1.52% and 2.47% to 137.82 MT and 113.29 MT respectively in 20230-24 compared to previous year. However pulses output dropped by 6.94% to 24.24 MT, mainly because of a 10% decline in chana to 11.03 MT on year.
The oilseed output dropped to 39.66 MT in 2023-24, a decline of 4% compared to previous year.
The agriculture ministry has stated that the crop area has been validated and triangulated with information received from various sources including remote sensing, weekly crop weather watch group and other agencies. Crop yields estimates are majorly based on crop cutting experiments conducted nationwide, it stated.
The ministry is currently conducting a series of meetings with stakeholders for formulating the first advance estimates of agricultural crops for the 2024-25 crop year.
The agriculture ministry has stated that during 2023-24, there were drought-like conditions in southern states, including Maharashtra and prolonged dry spell during August especially in Rajasthan.
“The moisture stress from the drought also affected the rabi season and this mainly impacted production of pulses, coarse cereals, soybean and cotton,” according to an official note.
In 2023, the monsoon season (June-September) ended with the country receiving rainfall just below the normal range at 94.4% of the benchmark – long period average (LPA).
There was a huge variation in monthly rainfall over the country across four months last year with overall rainfall in June was 91% of LPA followed by a hugely surplus rainfall in July at 113% of the benchmark.
In August, the rainfall was lowest since 1902 at only 64% of LPA , while September rainfall was surplus at 113% of normal benchmark.