Due to delayed/deficient rainfall, area coverage under most of the crops during current kharif season has declined
As per the First Advance Estimates of Production of major Kharif crops for 2014-15, the total production of Kharif Foodgrains is estimated at 120.27 million tonnes (mt), which is lower by 8.97 mt as compared to record production of 129.24 mt of foodgrains achieved during Kharif 2013-14.Due to delayed/deficient rainfall, area coverage under most of the crops during current kharif season has declined. Erratic rainfall and dry spells in several parts of the country have also impacted productivity of crops. Due to lower area coverage and productivity, production of most of the crops is expected to be lower than their record production levels achieved during the last year. However, these are preliminary estimates and do not take into account the positive impact of rainfall of September 2014. Also, as per past experience, the first advance estimates reported by States are generally conservative and subsequently undergo upward revision.
Production of kharif Rice estimated at 88.02 mt, though lower by 3.67 mt as compared to last year's record production of 91.69 mt, is higher by 1.34 mt than its 5-year average production.
Delayed arrival of monsoon impacted sowing of Jowar, Bajra and Maize in some major States such as Andhra Pradesh, Gujrat, Karanataka, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, leading to significant decline of 18.56 lakh hectares in the overall area under kharif Coarse Cereals than the last year. Decline in area has adversely affected production of above crops, leading to decline in the total production of kharif Coarse Cereals, which is estimated to be lower at 27.05 mt as compared to 31.53 mt during 2013-14.
Decline in area under Tur and Moong has also affected production of Kharif Pulses, which is estimated at 5.20 mt as against their production of 6.02 mt during Kharif 2013-14.
Among Oilseeds, on account of decline in area and productivity in Gujarat, total production of Groundnut in the country has suffered considerably and declined to 5.02 mt as compared to its record production of 7.81 mt during 2013-14. Production of Soyabean estimated at 11.82 mt is also marginally lower than the last year. Due to setback in the production of above two major Oilseeds, total production of kharif Oilseeds is expected to decline to 19.66 mt i.e. 2.75 mt lower than their record production of 22.41 mt achieved during Kharif 2013-14.
Production of Sugarcane estimated at 342.79 mt, though lower by 7.23 mt than the last year, is higher by 5.40 mt than its average production.
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Production of Cotton estimates at 34.62 million bales (of 170 kg each) is also lower by 1.97 million bales than its record production of 36.59 million bales during 2013-14 but higher by 2.02 million bales than the average production.
Production of Jute estimated at 10.87 million bales (of 180 kg each) is also marginally lower than its last year's production but higher than the average production of last five years.
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