Production of major crops registers steep fall in 2022-23 kharif

Mumbai: Amid the unseasonal rainfall and the hailstorm, production of cereals, pulses and oilseeds in 2022-23 kharif has dropped drastically in the state

Mumbai: Amid the unseasonal rainfall and the hailstorm, production of cereals, pulses and oilseeds in 2022-23 kharif has dropped drastically in the state.

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Production of cereals such as jowar, bajra has dropped by 50%, pulses like tur, moong dropped by 26%, while oil seeds such as sesame, groundnut, niger seed dropped by over 50%. A few food grains such as maze, ragi, paddy, urad, sunflower, soyabean showed multi-fold increase resulting in overall rise in production.

Chief minister Eknath Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis held a marathon meeting with ministers, officials from various departments including agriculture, cooperation, marketing to take stock of the preparations for the kharif season beginning in the first week of June.

Of the 2.22 crore hectare, 1.58 crore hectares are cultivated in kharif season. The review was about the preparations of stocks of seeds, fertilizers, availability of the crop loan, insurance cover among others.

According to the figures released by the agriculture department in a meeting held at YB Chavan Centre on Wednesday, the production of foodgrains and oilseeds was a whopping 151 lakh metric tonnes (MT) in 2022-23 against the five-year average of 131 lakh MT.

The production of some of the cereals, pulses and oilseeds dropped significantly in 2022-23. The production of kharif jowar dropped by 50%, while bajra production declined by 25%. Maize, ragi and paddy, however, registered 18%, 4% and 13% rise in production, respectively. Tur, moong production dropped by 26% and 4%, while the udid production increased by 29%.

Oil seeds including groundnut, sesame and niger seed dropped by 9%, 51% and 38%, respectively. Sunflower and Soyabean production, however, increased by 25% and 35%.

“It is ironic that production of millets such as jowar and bajra saw a drop when the state government is observing the millet year by spending over ₹200 crore. The drop in production is because of a change in the pattern based on the farmer’s experiences in previous years,” said an officer from the agriculture department.

“The reasons include minimum support price and the demand for specific crop last year. It is also because of other reasons such as unseasonal rainfall, hailstorm etc.,” added the officer.

According to the estimates for 2023-24, the production of foodgrains (including pulses and cereals) is expected to go up to 99.4 MT from 82.55 MT recorded in 2022-23. The area under cultivation of the foodgrains is expected to increase to 54.08 lakh hectares from 49.80 lakh hectares in 2022-23.

The production of oil seeds is estimated to increase to 78.32 lakh MT from 68.07 lakh MT in 2022-23 and the area is expected to remain almost the same at 51.32 lakh hectares.

Sugar production, however, is set to decline further in 2023-24. After the drop in sugar production in 2022-23 by around 17%, production is expected to decline by 20% in 2023-24.

Production of sugar in 2022-23 was 1,358 lakh metric tonnes, which will drop to 1087 lakh MT in the ongoing year. The area under cultivation of sugarcane will decline to 11.20 lakh hectares next year from 14.88 lakh hectares in 2022-23.

Fadnavis warned the banking sector with criminal action if they created hindrance in allocating crop loans to the farmers.

“Some of the banks refuse crop loans by citing reasons like CIBIL score etc. The agriculture department should take criminal action by registering first information report against the officers. At least one such case should be registered immediately,” Fadnavis told the officials during the meeting.

Fadnavis later said that the officials from the state level banking committee have requested to not take any such action against bankers. “I have told them that the government will not take it lightly if crop loans are rejected for wrong reasons,” he said.

Shinde had directed the officials from various officials to ensure that the farmers do not face any hardship even if the rainfall is less than last year.

The crop insurance payouts against the premium paid by governments and the farmers have surprisingly dropped this year (2022-23). Against the premium of ₹4,692 crore paid towards the crop insurance in 2022-23, the payouts to the farmers was ₹2,918 crore or 62%.

The premium paid in the last seven years (2016-17 to 2022-23) of the crop insurance scheme launched by the central government was ₹33,060 crore against which compensation payout paid to the farmers was ₹22,356 crore.