HYDERABAD: There is a drastic fall in food grain production this year and the state could not achieve not even 50 per cent of its target. The estimated food grain production in the state for the 2015-16 season, which will end this month, is around 48.63 lakh tonnes.
This is the second consecutive year that the state is falling short of its food grain target and it is likely to affect the price of rice in the open market.
The target of food grain production set by the agriculture department for 2015-16 is 110 lakh tonnes. However, the production will be just around 48.63 lakh tonnes, according to the latest estimates of production of food grains, oilseeds and other crops for the year prepared by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics (DES). Of the total food grains, the rice production will be around 16.21 lakh tonnes, as per DES estimate. The fall in production of food grains has been constant in the state for the last three years. This is mainly because of the drought conditions and lack of irrigation water.
Though the officials estimated that the production of food grains would be 49.35 lakh tonnes in 2015-16, the esimate has now been scaled down to 48.62 lakh tonnes. This is against the production of food grains of 72.2 lakh tonnes in 2014-15.
The price of rice in the open market in the last three years has gone up `30 to ` 40 a kilo. As there is going to be shortage of rice this year too, the prices of rice in the open market are likely to increase further, sources said.
Production (in lakh tonnes)
- Crop 2014-15 2015-16
- Rice 45.45 29.34
- Maize 23.08 16.21
- Cereals &
- millets 69.55 46.38
- Pulses 2.63 2.25
- Total food
- grains 72.18 48.63
- Groundnut 2.95 1.64
- Soyabean 2.62 2.54
- Oilseeds 7.22 5.05
- Sugarcane 33.43 27.93
- Cotton 35.83 35.98 (lakh bales and
- each bale is 170 kg)
