Bountiful and well-spread monsoon rains may help the country reap a record kharif foodgrain harvest of 144.52 million tonnes (mt), a tad higher than the 143.38 mt that was the previous best, according to First Advance crop estimates released by the Agriculture Ministry on Tuesday.
Oilseeds and cotton, too, are projected to yield much more than the last kharif season. Against the previous season’s production of 22.32 mt, the oilseeds output is estimated at 25.73 mt, while cotton production may scale a new high of 37.12 million bales (of 170 kg each) compared to 35.49 million bales last kharif.
Two crops that seem set to rewrite records in terms of output will be rice and groundnut. An increased sowing may push rice production to 102.36 mt against 101.98 mt in the 2019-20 kharif season, while the groundnut output is estimated to touch 9.54 mt (8.37 mt).