‘Errant rain but crop yield positive’

Rain at the end of the monsoon season is good for kharif crops and “positive” for rabi cultivations, the agriculture ministry says...

Rain at the end of the monsoon season is good for kharif crops and “positive” for rabi cultivations, the agriculture ministry says.

The ministry’s fourth advance estimate for 2005-06 puts kharif production at 105.25 million tonne and the rabi target at 110 million tonne. Final figures will be in only by December.

“Despite the errant weather most of the agriculture sector is looking up. There is some anticipation of certain percentage of crop losses. Overall, the states feel kharif production has been fairly good keeping in mind the weather,” Agriculture Secretary Radha Singh said today. She was speaking on the concluding day of a conference called to assess the rabi season.

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Soyabean production is expected to fall, with the estimate of 6.58 million tonne down 12.4 per cent from last year. Tur production is expected to dip 10.5 per cent compared to last year. Coarse cereals are down one per cent at 26.44 million tonne for 2005-06.

However rice production at 73.83 million tonne is up three per cent from last year.

Groundnut production is 5.94 million tonne, up from 5.33 million tonne the previous year. The total kharif oilseeds production for 2005-06 — 14.56 million tonne — is marginally lower than last year’s figure of 14.94 million tonne.

Cotton production is estimated at 15.90 million bales of 170 kg. Punjab, which is growing BT cotton, is upbeat over production.Speaking about the Centre’s seed plan, Singh said: “The seed replacement ratio is very low. And unless we improve the genetic quality of seeds, we are not going to get a major breakthrough.”