Govt sets 104.3 mn tonne rice ouput target for 2021-22

New Delhi: The government on Friday set a record rice production target of 104.3 million tonne for the kharif season of 2021-22 crop year (July-June).

Rice is the main crop grown in the kharif season, sowing of which begins with the onset of southwest monsoon from June.

In the kharif season last crop year, rice production was estimated to be at 103.75 million tonne against the target of 102.60 million tonne, as per the agriculture ministry's second advance estimate.

Discussing with states about the preparedness for the forthcoming kharif season, Agriculture Commissioner S K Malhotra said southwest monsoon as a whole is likely to be normal this year as per the Met Department.

The rice production target for the 2021-22 kharif season is set at a record 104.3 million tonne.

He asked the states to promote rice hybrid and drought, salinity and flood-tolerant seed varieties, besides encouraging safe and judicious use of tricyclazole and buprofezin in rice to avoid the presence of residue in rice exports. Whereas the production target for coarse cereals is kept at 37.31 million tonne, oilseeds at 26.20 million tonne and pulses at 9.82 million tonne for the kharif season of 2021-22.

The Total foodgrains production target of 151.43 million tonne has been set for the kharif season of this year.

In the same kharif season last year, foodgrains production was estimated to have been 147.95 million tonne, slightly below the target of 149.35 million tonne set for that season, as per the ministry's data.

According to the ministry, the production target for cotton has been fixed at 37 million bale (of 170 kg each), sugarcane at 387 million tonne, while jute/mesta at 10.6 million bale (of 180 kg each) for the current year.

On agri-inputs, Malhotra said the requirement of urea has been assessed at 177.53 lakh tonne, di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) at 65.18 lakh tonne, Muriate of Potash (MoP) at 20.24 lakh tonne and NPK fertilisers at 61.87 lakh tonne for the kharif season of this year.

In the case of seeds, the availability is estimated to be in surplus as far as most kharif crops are concerned, except for maize and soybean.

The shortage of maize seeds is pegged at 73,445 tonne, while soybean seeds at 87,656 tonne in the forthcoming kharif season, which the government said will be met from National Seeds Corporation, private seed companies and farm-saved seed, Malhotra said in the presentation.

However, the overall foodgrains production target for the full 2021-22 crop year is kept at 307.31 million tonne. This includes kharif and rabi season.

Meanwhile, The Centre on Friday asked five non-traditional onion growing states including Rajasthan to increase the area sown under the crop by 9,900 hectares in the forthcoming kharif season to avoid any price rise situation.

Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh are major kharif onion growing states, while Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Uttar Pradesh are five states which are non-traditional onion growing states.

Chalking out a strategy for the forthcoming kharif season of the 2021-22 crop year (July-June), Agriculture Commissioner S K Malhotra in a conference with state governments emphasised on the need to increase kharif onion area in non-traditional states.