Govt pegs 2.78% drop in kharif foodgrain output at 134.67 mt

“We don’t anticipate major drop in production of foodgrains and other crops in kharif 2017. However, we are much hopeful about rabi crop prospects following monsoon rains especially since early this month,” Pattanayak had said.
As per the first advance estimates, in case of crops like cotton, oilseeds and jute, the output is expected to fall while in case of sugarcane the production would rise. The harvesting of kharif crops are expected to begin early next month. The kharif rice output is likely to fall by 1.9 mt to 94.48 mt this year, from a record 96.39 mt in the previous kharif.

However, it’s unlikely to have any impact on prices as on September 1, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and state government agencies had rice stocks of more than 18 million tonnes against the buffer stocks norm of 10 mt on October 1. The new rice procurement season for 2017-18 would begin on October 1 where the state agencies have set a record procurement target of 37.5 MT.

The pulse output could drop to 8.71 mt, from the record 9.42 mt, mainly due to lower prices and patchy monsoon rains. However, agencies such as NAFED, SFAC and FCI have pulses buffer stocks of around 1.8 mt which would curb any possible price rise in future.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), southwest monsoon so far has been 5 per cent less than normal benchmark long period average.