Country's Foodgrain output this year is estimated to stay put at the '99-00 levels of 209.8m tonnes on account of the ensuing rabi production falling short of the target by over seven million tonnes and the prevailing drought in AP & MP. As a result the overall foodgrain output will fall short of the targeted 218 mt by at least nine million tonnes and in the third estimate in April may even be scaled down to 205 million tonnes. According to the second advance estimate released the rabi crop estimate is at only 100.7m tonnes against a targeted 107.9m tonnes. The estimate in fact is around the '98-99 levels and even lower than the actual output of 104.3m tonnes in '99-00. But figure for the kharif season has been hiked to 108.5m tonnes compared to the September estimate of 105.6m tonnes. This includes the hike in Kharif rice estimated at 78.7m tonnes from 76.4m tonnes pegged in September '01. Wheat output this year is pegged at 73.1m tonnes, higher than the previous year's 68.8m tonnes but way below the targeted 78m tonnes. This was because this year's acreage at 257.6 lakh hectares was much lower than the normal area of 272 lakh hectares. Due to deficient rains during the monsoon season acreage for wheat crop is much less than normal in MP & Rajasthan. For oilseeds, the second estimate for kharif has been upped to 13.1 m tonnes against 12.5m tonnes estimated in September. |
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