Reinforcing its earlier assessment, the Centre has pegged foodgrain production in the country at 252.22 million tonnes (mt) in 2015-16 in its fourth advance estimates — almost the same as 2014-15’s (July-June) production of 252.02 mt.

Production of major commercial crops in 2015-16, including cotton, sugarcane and oilseeds, was lower than in the previous year, according to the fourth advance estimates.

While overall foodgrain production is the same in the fourth advance estimate as in the third estimate announced in May, there are small changes in individual projections for most major crops, including rice, wheat and pulses.

All foodgrain crops, with the exception of wheat and cereals, declined in 2015-16 compared with the previous year.

Cereals output

Rice production in 2015-16, at 104.32 mt, was lower than last year’s 105.48 mt. Wheat production at 93.50 mt in 2015-16 was higher than the previous year’s 88.94 mt.

Production of pulses was at 16.47 mt (17.15 mt).

Cereal production was higher at 235.76 mt compared with 234.87 mt the year before.

Production of jowar, bajra, maize, ragi, small millets and barley at 4.41 mt, 8.06 mt, 21.81 mt, 1.79 mt, 0.37 mt and 1.51 mt, respectively, in 2015-16 were all lower than the previous year.

Sugarcane production, as per the fourth estimate, at 3,521.63 lakh tonnes (lt), was lower than the previous year’s production of 3,623.33 lt.

Cotton production was 301.47 lt (348.05 lt).

Oilseeds production, at 253.04 lt was also lower than the previous year’s production at 275.11 lt.

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