The agriculture ministry has revised the crop production estimates for 2000-01, making a marginal change in the overall foodgrain output numbers but significantly scaling down the figures for commercial crops, notably cotton and sugarcane.
The fourth set of estimates released today puts the total foodgrain production in 2000-01 at 196.07 million tonne, against the previous estimate (April figures) of 196.14 million tonne.
The new figure is 12.8 million tonne, or 6.12 per cent lower than the 1999-2000 record foodgrain output of 208.87 million tonne.
While the rice output estimate has been stepped up from the previous 85.5 million tonne to 86.3 million tonne (+0.9 per cent), that of wheat has been marginally lowered to 68.46 million tonne from the earlier 68.55 million tonne.
Both these estimates are substantially lower than the previous year
