Riding on the record production of rice and wheat despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic, India pulled off a record foodgrain harvest of 308.65 million tonnes (mt) during 2020-21-20 — nearly 11 mt more than last year, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said on Tuesday quoting the fourth advance estimates.

The total production of rice during the year 2020-21 is estimated at a record 122.27 mt against the previous best of 118.87 mt in 2019-20. Wheat output is projected to hit a record 109.52 mt. Pulses production, too, is estimated to be a record 25.72 mt ( 23.03 mt), while oilseeds output is projected to cross 36 mt against 33.22 mt in 2019-20, the Minister said.

Similarly, the production of nutricious/coarse cereals is estimated at 51.15 mt, which is higher by 3.40 mt more than the production of 2019-20. A substantial increase is expected in the cotton output at 35.38 million bales (of 170 kg each), which is better than 36.07 million bales in the previous year.

The output of maize is projected to be 31.51 mt (28.77 mt), soyabean at 12.9 mt (11.23 mt), gram at 11.99 mt (11.08 mt), groundnut at 10.21 mt (9.95 mt), rapeseed/mustard at 10.11 mt (9.12 mt), and arhar at 4.28 mt (3.89 mt), according to the estimates.