Government sets target for food grain production in crop year 2020-21
The Ministry of Agriculture has set a target to increase the total production of foodgrains in the country by 63.5 lakh tonnes to 298.3 million tonnes in the crop year 2020-21, on the hope of good monsoon. According to the second advance estimate released by the ministry in February, the country’s food production in the crop year 2019-20 could be 299 million tonnes.
In this context, Agriculture Commissioner SK Malhotra said in a national level video conference organized to plan the sowing of kharif crops, “The India Meteorological Department (IMD) estimates that the southwest monsoon is expected during June to September. Rainfall due to this may be normal. This raises expectations for rain-dependent kharif crops. “
Malhotra told the state government in the wake of the Covid-19 epidemic that the activities related to agriculture have been exempted from restrictions. He apprised the State Governments about the need to maintain proper distance between people and proper management of sanitation during sowing of Kharif crops.
He said that sowing of kharif crops has already started in some parts of the country. He informed that during the crop year 2020-21, a target of 14.94 million tonnes of food grains has been set in the Kharif season and 14.84 million tonnes in the Rabi season. Thus, the target is to produce 29.83 million tonnes of food grains during the entire crop year 2020-21.
