Karnataka has missed its targets in agriculture production for 2008-09. The state’s foodgrains production touched 10.9 million tonnes as against 12.2 million tonnes in 2007-08, a drop of 10.6 per cent. This is mainly on account of insufficient rains during the early part of the monsoon, decline in area under cultivation and shortage of fertiliser during the early part of kharif season during the year.
For the year-ended March 31, the state produced 9.97 million tonnes of cereals and close to 1 million tonnes of pulses, while oilseeds production dropped by 34.4 per cent to 1.01 million tonnes compared with the previous year. This is exactly 50 per cent of the targeted production of 2.08 million tonnes for the year, according to official sources.
Among other commercial crops, the production of cotton was 654,000 bales, a drop of 16 per cent compared with the previous year. Sugarcane production touched 22.1 million tonnes against the target of 21.1 million tonnes. Tobacco production was around 68,000 tonnes during the year.
Karnataka accounts for around 5 per cent of the national foodgrains and oilseeds production. The state is the third largest sugarcane grower, after Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
Under kharif, the area covered was 6.55 million hectares, around 88 per cent of the targeted area. Around 800,000 hectares was affected by the long dry spell during kharif and around 98,000 hectares was affected by the flash floods during the first fortnight of August 2008. During rabi, 3.51 million hectares area was covered as against the target of 3.77 million hectares, data compiled by the state agriculture department revealed.
A rainfall of 143 mm was received during rabi against a normal 193 mm, a shortfall of around 26 per cent. No rains were received during the first fortnight of November, which resulted in severe moisture stress during the flowering stage of most of the Rabi crops.
Following its failure to achieve the targeted production of various agricultural crops in 2008-09, the state agriculture department proposed to maintain the level of production in 2009-10. The department has proposed to achieve 11.83 million tonnes of foodgrains, of which cereals will be 10.8 million tonnes and 1 million tonnes of pulses. It is aiming at a production of 1.6 million tonnes of oilseeds production and 879,000 bales of cotton, a growth of around 35 per cent over the last fiscal. For sugarcane, it has set a target of producing 22 million tonnes and 85,000 tonnes of tobacco during the year.
During kharif 2009-10, the state aims to bring 7.2 million hectares under cultivation of various crops, around 10 per cent more than last year’s achievement.
