New Delhi: The government on Tuesday said the country would meet the target of producing 254.23 million tonne foodgrain in 2012-13 despite drought in some parts of the country. India could not achieve the food production target in 2009-10 due to severe drought in many states. However, it had met the target since 2010-11.
"Despite drought in some parts of the country in 2012-13, foodgrain production is on course to realise target of 254.23 million tonne," Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. India's target for rice production in 2012-13 was 104 million tonne and as per the Second Advance Estimates, it would be 101.80 million tonne. In 2011-12 it was 105.31 million tonne and 95.98 million tonne in 2010-11, he said.
While pulses production target was 18.24 million tonne in 2012-13 and as per the estimates, it would be around 17.58 million tonne. Target for Jowar was 7 million tonne for 2012-13, and 5.26 tonne has been produced. States such as Uttar Pradesh had target of 48.46 million tonne of food production last fiscal and as per the estimates, has produced 49.70 million tonne in 2012-13. Similarly, Bihar has a target of 13.98 million tonne and produced 14.02 million tonne; Madhya Pradesh produced 21.82 million tonne against its target of 15.87 million tonne.
Punjab has target of 27.98 million tonne and has met it in 2012-13. However, some states such as Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan fell short of their targets. Answering to a separate query, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Processing Industries Tariq Anwar informed the Lok Sabha that the seed industry in the country is growing at rate of 8-10 per cent in the last three years and has now turnover of about Rs 11,000 crore.
"The seed industry in the country has been growing approximately 8-10 per cent per annum over last three years. Present turn over of the industry is about Rs 11,000 crore," said Tariq. He said the reason for fast growth in the seed industry is increased demand for quality seeds by the farmers to achieve higher production.
Moreover, price of these quality seeds has also increased by 5-13 per cent during that period and the government is providing assistance for seed production and distribution under various crop development schemes to provide seeds at reasonable rates to the farmers, said Tariq. He further added that the central and state governments are organising various training programmes on safe and judicious use of pesticides to educate the farmers.
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