Agri Minister says grains output may reach 216 mn tones

New Delhi, Feb. 19 India’s foodgrains and oilseeds output may touch 216 million tonnes and 25.5 million tonnes respectively and the latest estimate of 212.2 and 24.9 million tonnes is only "advance" in nature.

"The agri-performance this year has been astonishing to see that foodgrains output could touch even 216 million tonnes. The estimate of 212 million tonnes is only second in a series of estimates and third and fourth estimates are yet to arrive," Agriculture Minister Rajnath Singh said here.

He said it is possible that oilseeds could touch 250-255 lakh tonnes, if the current favourable trends in weather continue.

On the sidelines of an official function, he said the credit for the all-time-high output goes to both the toiling farmers and scientists who have contributed in increasing productivity and helped developing high quality of seeds.

He said this year there were bountiful rains but monsoon was fast losing its balance due to large-scale exploitation of resources resulting in climate change.

Earlier this week, government had released the second advance crop estimates in which the foodgrains and oilseeds output was pegged at an all-time-record of 212.2 million tonnes and 24.9 million tonnes respectively, thereby contributing to the overall growth of the economy.

It had also scaled down the estimate of foodgrains output for 2002-03 to 174.19 million tonnes from 182.57 million tonnes, indicating that the severity of drought was much more than anticipated earlier. (PTI)