Journalism of Courage
India’s agricultural output hasn’t taken as much a hit from back-to-back droughts this time round as with previous monsoon failure episodes.
Total foodgrain production in 2015-16 is expected at 253.16 million tonnes (mt), according to the Agriculture Ministry’s second advance estimates. This is only 4.5 per cent below the 265.04 mt of 2013-14, which was, in turn, an all-time-high.
[related-post]
This relative insulation from deficient monsoons can be attributed to increased access to irrigation facilities, planting of shorter-duration varieties less prone to moisture stress, and timely meteorological forecasts enabling better crop planning and preparedness among both the Centre and state governments. The effects of these were seen especially this time, with the Met Department issuing drought warnings well in advance.
It is only in oilseeds where a real production fall of almost 20 per cent has taken place. But even here, the dip has been more in groundnut and soyabean, both predominantly monsoon-dependent kharif crops. It has been less for rapeseed-mustard, which is grown in the rabi season with nearly three-fourths crop area under irrigation.
