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Monday, March 5, 2018

India's Record foodgrain production signals a recovery in agriculture in 2017-18

Indian farmers, battling adversities on farms and off them, have brought glad tidings for the rest of the nation. Foodgrain production is set to rise to a record 277.5 million tonnes in 2017-18, according to the agriculture ministry.





At this level, food production is about 0.9% higher than the 275.1 million tonnes produced in 2016-17, also a record crop year, the second advance estimates of crop production released by the ministry showed on Tuesday Feb 27,2018


The crop year is from July to June.

Data from the agriculture ministry projected production of rice, coarse grains and pulses to rise during the year, that of wheat is likely to drop by 1.4% to 97.1 million tonnes in 2017-18 from 98.5 million tonnes in the previous years.

While India’s rice output is estimated to rise to about 111 million tonnes in 2017-18 from 109.7 million tonnes a year earlier, production of pulses is likely at a record 24 million tonnes, up from 23 million tonnes the year before. Among different pulse varieties production of chana (gram) is estimated to rise by a staggering 18% to over 11 million tonnes in 2017-18.

The estimates further showed that India’s oilseed production is likely to decline 4.4% to 29.9 million tonnes in 2017-18 from 31.3 million tonnes in the previous year. The fall in oilseeds output is driven by a sharp 13% drop in production of soybean.

However, the record foodgrain production during the year may not boost India’s farm sector growth rate due to the base effect of 2016-17, which also was a record crop year. The pace of growth is estimated to decline to 2.1% in 2017-18 from 4.9% the year before, the central statistics office said in early January.

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