Govt Estimates Wheat Production At Record High Of 106.21 Mn tonne For 2019-20

India is all set to harvest a record high wheat production of 106.21 million tonnes in the 2019-20 fiscal year. This comes on the back of incessant rains, according to the latest government data from the agriculture ministry.

Wheat production has been increasing every year and the previous target of 103.60 million tonnes was met during the 2018-19 financial year.

The harvesting of the main rabi (winter) crop, wheat, will begin from next month.

The Agriculture Ministry said that the cumulative rainfall in the country during the monsoon season was 10 per cent higher than the Long Period Average (LPA).

Accordingly, the production of most of the crops for the 2019-20 crop year has been estimated higher than their usual production, it said.

As per the second estimate, total foodgrain production is estimated at a record 291.95 million tonne for 2019-20 crop year, higher than 285.21 million tonnes previous year.

Of the total production, foodgrain output is estimated to be 142.36 million tonnes from the Kharif (summer) season and 149.60 million tonnes from the rabi season of the current year.

From the food basket, Rice output is estimated to increase to 117.47 million tonnes this year from 116.48 million tonnes last year.

Production of cereals is expected to rise to 268.93 million tonnes from 263.14 million tonnes, the data showed.

Production of pulses is pegged higher at 23.02 million tonnes for this year as against 22.08 million tonnes last year. Oilseeds output is also estimated to rise to 34.18 million tonnes for 2019-20 from 31.52 million tonnes last year.

Among cash crops, the output of sugarcane is estimated to fall to 353.84 million tonnes from an earlier 405.41 million tonnes.

The agriculture ministry comes out with four foodgrain production estimates at different stages of harvesting.

Also Read: Granaries Overflowing, Food Dept Suggests Export Of Wheat, Rice To Deserving Countries