VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh, which achieved a foodgrain-production record of 180.54 lakh tonnes in 2019-20, has now set itself a target of 183.63 lakh tonnes for the 2020-21 fiscal. The target for the Kharif season is 95.28 lakh tonnes, and for the Rabi season is 88.35 lakh tonnes. As per the final advance estimates provided by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, the total foodgrain production in 2019-20 (Rabi and Kharif) was 180.54 lakh tonnes, as against 149.56 lakh tonnes in 2018-19, an increase of 30.98 lakh tonnes, Andhra Pradesh State Agriculture Mission (APSAM) vice-chairperson MVS Nagi Reddy told The New Indian Express.
Farmers in the state cultivate paddy, jowar (sorghum), bajra, maize, ragi, korra, samma, red gram, bengal gram, black gram and green gram. Paddy cultivation is taken up on a large area in the state, particularly during the Kharif season. In 2018-19, paddy production stood at 123.52 lakh tonnes and increased to 139.73 lakh tonnes in 2019-20, a hike of 13.12 per cent. For the 2020-21 fiscal, Nagi Reddy said APSAM has fixed a paddy- production target of 140.83 lakh tonnes.
Production of bajra, one of the coarse cereals, increased by a whopping 147.82 per cent in 2019-20 compared 2018-19 — 57,000 tonnes as against 23,000 tonnes. For 2020-21, the target has been fixed at 89,000 tonnes.
However, the target for maize production, which stood at 23.98 lakh tonnes in 2019-20 has been reduced to 21.52 lakh tonnes in 2020-21. While the target for jowar production increased to 4.03 lakh tonnes as against the actual production of 3.73 lakh tonnes in 2019-20, production of millets, targeted at 78,000 tonnes, registered an actual production of 66,000 tonnes in the same year.
The target for production of all pulses, registering a 60.40 per cent increase in 2019-20 (11.87 lakh tonnes) as against 2018-19 (7.40 lakh tonnes), has been fixed at 14.85 lakh tonnes for 2020-21, he said. Red gram and Bengal gram registered a production of 1.2 lakh tonnes and 5.6 lakh tonnes respectively in 2019-20, and for the current fiscal, the target for red gram has been fixed at 2.39 lakh tonnes and Bengal gram at 5.7 lakh tonnes. This shows that cultivation of red gram is being encouraged by the government.
Production of black gram and green gram for 2020- 21 have been fixed at 4.45 lakh tonnes and 1.48 lakh tonnes respectively. While the production of red gram and Bengal gram increased by 160.86 per cent and 60.40 per cent respectively in 2019-20, a reduction of 12.54 per cent and 21.29 per cent, respectively was recorded in the production of black gram and green gram. Groundnuts production in 2019-20 was 8.47 lakh tonnes, 83.33 per cent more than the production registered in 2018- 19 (4.62 lakh tonnes). The groundnut production target for 2020-21 has been fixed at 10.31 lakh tonnes, Nagi Reddy said.
