The government has fixed foodgrain production target of 274.55 million tonnes (MT) for ongoing 2017-18 crop year (July-June) despite deficient rains as well as floods in some parts of the country. As per Agriculture Secretary S K Pattanayak, the country has achieved record production of 275.68 MT in 2016-17 and the foodgrain production is expected to be around last year’s record level.
For the current year, the Agriculture Ministry has fixed the target for rice output at 108.50 MT, wheat at 97.50 MT, pulses at 22.90 MT and coarse cereals at 45.65 MT.
However the targets for wheat, rice and pulses have been kept lower than the actual production achieved last year. In case of coarse cereals, the target has been set 1.5 MT higher than the last year’s production.