Rice to Cost More as Grain Production Plummets in Telangana

With the annual season ending next month, output won’t even touch 50 pc of the Agri depts target of 110 lakh tonnes

Published: 29th April 2016 05:33 AM  |   Last Updated: 29th April 2016 05:34 AM   |  A+A-

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)

India Matters

Comments

Disclaimer : We respect your thoughts and views! But we need to be judicious while moderating your comments. All the comments will be moderated by the newindianexpress.com editorial. Abstain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or inflammatory, and do not indulge in personal attacks. Try to avoid outside hyperlinks inside the comment. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines.

The views expressed in comments published on newindianexpress.com are those of the comment writers alone. They do not represent the views or opinions of newindianexpress.com or its staff, nor do they represent the views or opinions of The New Indian Express Group, or any entity of, or affiliated with, The New Indian Express Group. newindianexpress.com reserves the right to take any or all comments down at any time.

flipboard facebook twitter whatsapp