Government's focus on increasing production of pulses and oilseeds

21-Oct-2024 05:20 PM

New Delhi. In view of the overall better scenario of crop production due to good rainfall of southwest monsoon during the current year, the Central Government has set a target of production of 34.155 crore tonnes of food grains in the country for the entire marketing season of 2024-25.

This new record level of production is about 90 lakh tonnes or 2.7 percent more than the total reviewed production of 2023-24 season. In the food grain category,

the government's focus is mainly on increasing the production of pulses, while in the non-food grain category, it wants to focus more on increasing the production of oilseed crops because India's dependence on import of pulses and edible oils has increased significantly.

The new record target of food grain production set also includes the target of production of 1150 lakh tonnes of wheat and about 300 lakh tonnes of pulses.

The target of production of both these crops is also of a new record level. The production target of pulses is 25 percent higher than the production of 2023-24 season. Similarly, the target for production of oilseed crops has been increased to about 450 lakh tonnes,

which is 12 percent more than last year's production. But the target for rice production has been reduced to 1360 lakh tonnes, which is 10 lakh tonnes less than the production of 1370 lakh tonnes in the 2023-24 season.

The Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister has said that the high target of production of pulses and oilseeds crops will be achieved through crop diversification, intercropping, increase in sowing area and cultivation of high productivity seeds in less fertile areas etc.

While addressing the National Agriculture Conference organized for Rabi Abhiyan 2024, the Agriculture Minister had said the previous day that the use of new methods and techniques of farming will be increased.