Andhra produces bumper crop

STATE WATCH: ANDHRA PRADESH

Paddy leads growth in foodgrains with a production of 7.43 million tonnes

The Andhra Pradesh agriculture department has announced a bumper 2007 kharif crop with the state's total foodgrain production estimated to touch 10 million tonnes. During the last kharif season, the state recorded production of 8.8 million tonnes.

Oil seed production has gone up phenomenally to 2.4 million tonnes during the present kharif compared with 7 lakh tonnes in the corresponding season last year, according to the latest figures compiled by the state agriculture commissionerate.

While paddy has led the growth in foodgrains with an estimated production of 7.43 million tonnes compared with 6.94 million tonnes in the last kharif, groundnut production is estimated to have registered a four-fold increase at 1.62 million tonnes from just 3.61 lakh tonnes last kharif.

Among commercial crops, cotton has shown a big jump in production at 2.57 million bales (170 kg each) this year compared with 1.79 million bales during the last kharif. 
 

KHARIF OUTPUT (In mt)
Crops	2007-08	2006-07
Total food grains	10.00	8.80
Paddy	7.43	6.94
Maize	1.78	1.36
Total oil seeds	2.40	0.70
Groundnut	1.62	0.36
Cotton*	2.57	1.79
* million bales

The increase in production and yields are primarily attributed to good monsoons and the absence of untimely rain accompanied by depressions and cyclones normally witnessed during the pre-harvesting period.

The increase in supply of quality seeds and other interventions, such as the usage of highly-efficient pesticides, substituting the conventional cotton hybrid with the bolgard cotton seed for the entire acreage and sensitising the farmer through extension work, are also considered to have contributed to the increased production of various crops.

While paddy accounts for almost 75 per cent of the state's total foodgrain production, maize, which comes second both in terms of area and production in the foodgrain segment, is estimated to have touched a production figure of 1.78 million tonnes compared with 1.36 million tonnes during the last kharif.

Of the foodgrains, pulses, which include redgram, greengram and blackgram, registered a 66 per cent increase in production at 4.6 lakh tonnes this time from 2.68 lakh tonnes during the last kharif. Redgram, the major crop among pulses, is estimated to have recorded a production of 2.78 lakh tonnes compared with 1.61 lakh tonnes last year.

Among the oil seeds, sunflower remained at last year's level of 53,000 tonnes while castor, soybean and sesamum registered an increase of between 11 per cent and 30 per cent. Soybean, which emerged as the second biggest crop in oilseed acreage after groundnut, registered a production of 1.81 lakh tonnes from 1.52 lakh tonnes in the corresponding period last year.

According to Ponnam Prabhakar, chairman, Markfed (Andhra Pradesh State Co-operative Marketing Federation), procurement by the federation at the minimum support price of Rs 620 per quintal still continues to be a non-starter during this season as farmers are getting a better price in the open market.

"Companies like Cargil have been directly procuring maize from farmers in the state for export purposes by offering Rs 650-Rs 670 per quintal. So far, we could purchase just 56,000 tonnes as against the procurement target of 5 lakh tonnes planned for the season," he told Business Standard.

Advance estimates for the ongoing rabi season have put the total foodgrain production at 7.15 million tonnes, which is almost the same as the last rabi. However, oilseed production is expected to be about 7.79 lakh tonnes compared with the estimated 6.06 lakh tonnes during the last season.