Little Change In Kharif Pulses
NOV 5/24 - DELHI - SNS -- In its first estimate of kharif season crops, India's Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare (DAFW) says production of pulses will be little changed from last year.
Output of all pulses grown during the kharif season was pegged at 6.95 million metric tons (MT), similar to the 6.97 million grown last year, down 12% from the previous five year average of 7.87 million.
The most important kharif season pulse is tur or pigeon pea. This year's harvest is expected to reach 3.5 million MT, up from 3.42 million last year but down from the previous five year average of 3.83 million.
By contrast, output of urad or black matpe is expected to drop from 1.6 to 1.21 million MT, while mung advances from 1.15 to 1.38 million MT and output of other pulses reaches 860,000 MT, up from 880,000 last year.
Rice Pulls Up Food Grains
By contrast, production of all kharif season food grains is expected to be up sharply from last year, jumping from 155.77 to 164.71 million MT, up 8% from the previous five year average of 152.25 million MT.
The largest part of the increase was accounted for by rice. Output is believed to have advanced from 113.26 to 119.93 million MT, 11% above the previous five year average of 108.45 million.
Total kharif season oilseeds production is expected to reach 25.745 million MT, up 1.583 million from last year. Groundnut output could reach 10.360 million MT and soybean 13.36 million.
In releasing the latest data, India's agriculture department said it has changed the way it calculates both planted are and yields.
"The crop area received from the States have been validated and triangulated with information received from Remote Sensing, Weekly Crop Weather Watch Group and other agencies," the department explained.
"Further, DAFW took the initiative of Stakeholder consultation with representatives from the industry and other Governmental Departments to receive their opinion, views and sentiments for the current kharif season. These have also been considered while finalising the estimates.
"For the first time, data from the Digital Crop Survey (DCS) which is being conducted under Digital Agriculture Mission in collaboration with State Governments has been utilized to prepare area estimates.
"This survey which is envisaged to replace the manual Girdawari system is an important step towards arriving at robust crop area estimates.
"DCS based Crop Area Estimation has been done for the States of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Odisha wherein 100% districts are covered under DCS in Kharif 2024. This has led to substantial rise in area under rice particularly in Uttar Pradesh."
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