India received below-normal rainfall during the nine El Nino years since 1950, the Lok Sabha was informed on Thursday.

In a written reply to a query on El Nino’s impact on rainfall in the lower house, Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, said Indian summer monsoon is generally weaker than normal during the El Nino event, and the intensity of the event also decides the amount of impact on the monsoon.

Since 1950, there were 16 El Nino events, out of which nine impacted the monsoon rainfall - all below normal, he said.

Wheat, rice output

Giving details of rainfall pattern and its impact on agriculture in the last three years, the Minister said 69 per cent of the districts in the country received large excess, excess and normal rainfall in 2023 and 31 per cent of the districts received deficient and large deficient rainfall.

He said 72 per cent and 77 per cent of the districts received large excess, excess and normal rainfall in 2022 and 2021, respectively.

The Minister’s reply also mentioned about the increase in rice and wheat production during 2020-21, 2022-23 and 2023-24.

India’s rice production reached 1367 lakh tonnes (lt) in 2023-24 against 1357.55 lt in 2022-23 and 1294.71 lt in 2021-22. Wheat production in India went up to 1129.25 lt in 2023-24 from 1105.54 lt in 2022-23 and 1077.42 lt in 2021-22.

Cereals production in India increased to 3043.59 lt in 2023-24 from 3036.28 lt in 2022-23 and 2883.14 lt in 2021-22.

However, the production of oilseeds declined from 413.55 lt in 2022-23 to 395.93 lt in 2023-24. Even the sugarcane production in the country came down to 4425.22 lt in 2023-24 from 4905.33 lt in 2022-23. Cotton production in the country declined to 325.22 bales in 2023-24 from 336.60 bales in 2022-23.

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