Production scenario of major agricultural crops in 2018-19 (as per First Advance Estimates)
DAC&FW fixes the target for the production of foodgrains in the country annually. The target for the production of foodgrains has been fixed at 290.25 million tonne (MT) for 2018-19. The production of foodgrains in the country has been estimated at 284.83 MT (as per the Fourth Advance Estimates) for 2017-18, which is a record.
As per the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), the rainfall in the country was normal (-9 per cent) during the South-West monsoon season (i e between June and September 2018).
Production scenario of major Rabi agricultural crops in 2017-18 (as per Fourth Advance Estimates)
As per the Fourth Advance Estimates for 2017-18, the total Rabi foodgrain production in the country is estimated at 144.10 MT, which is higher by 7.32 MT than the previous record production of Rabi foodgrain of 136.78 MT achieved during 2016-17. The Rabi production during 2017-18 is also higher by 13.58 MT than the previous five years’ (i e between 2012-13 and 2016-17) average production of foodgrain.
The total production of Rabi rice during 2017-18 was estimated at record 15.41 MT. The production of rabi rice has increased by 2.01 MT vis-a-vis the production of 13.40 MT in 2016-17. It is also higher by 1.71 MT than the five years’ average production of 13.70 MT.
The production of wheat, estimated at record 99.70 MT, is higher by 1.19 MT as compared to the wheat production of 98.51 MT achieved in 2016-17. Further, the production of wheat during 2017-18 is higher by 6.36 MT than the average wheat production of 93.34 MT.
The production of Rabi nutri/coarse cereals, estimated at record 13.10 million tonne, was higher than the average production by 1.91 MT. Further, it is also higher by 1.77 MT as compared to their production of 11.33 MT achieved in 2016-17.
The total Rabi pulses production during 2017-18 was estimated at a record 15.89 MT, which was higher by 2.34 MT than the previous year’s production of 13.55 MT. Moreover, the production of Rabi pulses in 2017-18 is higher by 3.60 MT than the five years’ average production of 12.29 MT.
The total Rabi oilseeds production in the country in 2017-18 was estimated at 10.31 MT, which was marginally higher by 0.55 MT than the production of 9.76 MT in 2016-17. However, the production of Rabi oilseeds during 2017-18 was higher by 0.92 MT than the average Rabi oilseeds production (between 2012-13 and 2016-17).
Production scenario of major Kharif agricultural crops in 2018-19 as per First Advance Estimates
The production of foodgrains in the country during Kharif 2018 was estimated at 141.59 MT (as per the First Advance Estimates) against 140.73 MT (as per the Fourth Advance Estimates) during Kharif 2017, which is higher by 0.86 MT. Further, kharif foodgrain production is 11.94 MT more than the average production of five years (between 2012-13 and 2016-17) of 129.65 MT.
The total production of Kharif rice was estimated at 99.24 MT. This is higher by 1.74 MT than the last year’s production of 97.50 MT. Further, it was higher by 6.64 MT than the average production of Kharif rice during the last five years.
The total production of nutri/coarse cereals in the country decreased to 33.13 MT as compared to 33.89 MT during 2017-18. The production of maize was expected to be 21.47 MT, which was higher by 1.23 MT than that of last year’s production of 20.24 MT. Further, this is higher by 4.40 MT than the average production of maize during the last five years.
The total production of Kharif pulses was estimated at 9.22 MT, which is lower by 0.12 MT than the last year’s production of 9.34 MT. However, Kharif pulses’ estimated production was 2.67 MT higher than the last five years’ average production.
The total production of Kharif oilseeds in the country was estimated at 22.19 MT as compared to 21 MT during 2017-18, i e an increase of 1.19 MT. Also, it was higher by 2.02 MT than the average production of the last five years.
The production of sugarcane was estimated at 383.89 MT, which was higher by 6.99 MT than the last year’s production of 376.90 MT. Further, it was higher by 41.85 MT than the average production of the last five years.
Doubling of farmers’ incomes
The Government has set a target to double farmers’ incomes by the year 2022. It has constituted an inter-ministerial committee under the chairmanship of chief executive officer, National Rainfed Area Authority, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, to examine the issues related to the doubling of farmers’ incomes and recommend a strategy to achieve the doubling of farmers’ incomes in real terms by the year 2022.
The committee has identified seven sources of income growth, viz improvement in crop and livestock productivity; resource use efficiency or savings in the cost of production; increase in the cropping intensity; diversification towards high value crops; improvement in real prices received by farmers, and shift from farm to non-farm occupations. The committee is also looking into the investments in and for agriculture, for instance, increasing public investments for agriculture (rural roads, rural electricity, irrigation), and the need for policy support to enable investments by corporate sector in agriculture.
The Government has been reorienting the agriculture sector by focussing on an income-centredness which goes beyond achieving merely the targeted production. The income approach focusses on achieving high productivity, reduced cost of cultivation and remunerative price on the produce, with a view to earn higher profits from farming.
Several initiatives have already been taken among each of the aforementioned strategies. These, inter-alia, include:
Initiating market reforms through the State governments by amending the agriculture marketing regime
Encouraging contract farming through the State governments by promulgating the Model Contract Farming Act
Twenty-two thousand Gramin Haats are to be upgraded to work as centres of aggregation and for direct purchase of agricultural commodities from the farmers
Launch of the eNAM (electronic National Agriculture Market) initiative to provide farmers an electronic online trading platform
Implementation of the flagship scheme of distribution of soil health cards to farmers so that the use of fertilisers can be optimised. So far, over 15 crore soil health cards have been distributed in two cycles
The per drop more crop initiative under which drip/sprinkler irrigation is being encouraged for optimal utilisation of water
Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY), under which organic farming is being promoted. The North-East is being developed as organic hub
A revised farmer-friendly Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) have been launched. The scheme covers various types of risks from pre-sowing to post-harvest and the farmers have to pay a very nominal premium
Minimum support price (MSP) is notified by the Government for certain crops. Giving a major boost to the farmers’ incomes, the Government has approved the increase in the MSPs for all Kharif and Rabi crops for 2018-19 season at a level of at least 150 per cent of the cost of production
Rashtriya Gokul Mission has been implemented to enhance milk production and productivity of bovines and to make milk production more remunerative to the farmers
The National Livestock Mission has been implemented to increase productivity and genetic improvement of livestock
Foreseeing high potential in fisheries sector, a Blue Revolution with multi-dimensional activities, mainly focussing on fisheries production, both inland and marine is being implemented
The National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA), on of the eight Missions under the PM’s National Action Plan on Climate Change, is anchored in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare’. The revised strategy document for 2018-2030 was prepared for enhancing the preparedness of the agriculture and allied sectors towards the challenges posed by climate change
Higher production through productivity gains
National Food Security Mission (NFSM)
The NFSM programme is being implemented in 638 districts of 29 states of the country for increasing the production and productivity of foodgrain crops (rice, wheat, pulses, coarse cereals and nutri-cereals) through area expansion and productivity enhancement, restoring soil fertility and productivity at the individual farm level and enhancing farm-level economy to restore confidence amongst the farmers
From the year 2018-19, the NFSM-Nutri-cereals programme are being implemented in 202 districts of 14 states (jowar in 88 districts of 10 states, bajra in 88 districts of nine states, ragi in 44 districts of eight states and other millets in 43 districts of seven states). Maize is being implemented in 237 districts and barley in 39 districts of the country. The North-eastern states, Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh have been given flexibility for implementing the NFSM-Nutri-cereals programme
A programme on additional area coverage of pulses during Rabi/Summer 2018-19 has been launched with an allocation of Rs 288.83 crore (the Government of India’s hare) to increase production of rabi/summer pulses through area expansion. The additional allocation for implementation of the aforesaid programme has been made to 15 states
As per the target, NFSM has achieved the bumper production of rice, wheat, pulses and nutri-cum-coarse cereals in 2017-18 (as per the Fourth Advance Estimates), the production of rice, wheat, pulses and coarse-cum-nutri- cereals have been achieved at the level of 112.91 MT, 99.70 MT, 25.23 MT and 46.99 MT, respectively. The total foodgrains production achieved during 2017-18 was 284.83 MT (3.5 per cent) increase against last year
The new initiatives taken for increasing production and productivity of nutri-cereals from 2018-19 onwards are as follows:
Breeder seed production of nutri-cereals
Creation of seed hubs
Certified seed production
Seed minikits allocation
Strengthening/creation of Center of Excellence
Publicity of nutri-cereals
International Year of Millets
The proposal of Government of India to celebrate an International Year of Millets by the UN (United Nations) was endorsed by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) Council for 2023.
Krishi Unnati Mela, 2018
The third essay of the national-level Krishi Unnati Mela was organised by DAC&FW jointly with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the Department of Animal, Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India at Mela Ground, IARI, Pusa Campus, New Delhi, in March 2018
FICCI (the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) was selected as the project management agency (PMA) to organise Krishi Unnati Mela 2018 through the e-tender process
India’s prime minister Narendra Modi visited the Theme Pavilion and the Jaivik Mahakumbh at the event. He laid the foundation stone for 25 Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs); launched an e-marketing portal for organic products, and presented the Krishi Karman Award and the Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Krishi Protsahan Puraskar. The prime minister appreciated the spirit and the hardwork of Indian farmers for their achievements in agriculture since independence and added that there were important challenges in agriculture today, which reduced the farmers’ income, and increased their losses and expenditure. The Government is working with a holistic approach to deal with these challenges. He said the aim remained to double farmers’ incomes and make the farmers lives easier
Over 600 stalls were set up by the Central and state governments, various organisations etc. at the fair
New harvesting techniques through organic means and their successful implementation: The Javik Mahakumbh pavilion was a special attraction of the fair. In order to give a boost to cooperatives, a Sehkar Sammelan was also organised. Apart from this, nine farmer-scientist discussions (three each day) were organised on important issues
About 26,000 farmers, comprising 17,000 from ATMA, 5,000 through KVKs and 4,000 from ICAR from different states, visited the Krishi Unnati Mela, 2018. Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs), state agriculture universities (SAUs), state agriculture/ horticulture departments, entrepreneurs and private agencies involved in agriculture were also participated in the mela
National Conference on Agriculture 2022 – Doubling Farmers’ Incomes
The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (MoA&FW) organised a two-day national conference titled Agriculture 2022 – Doubling Farmers’ Incomes at National Agriculture Science Complex (NASC), Pusa, New Delhi. This Conference was organised on the advice of the prime minister, with a view to identifying various critical issues relating to agriculture and farmers’ welfare and finding appropriate solutions. On the second day, Modi emphasised that efforts are being made to build a new culture that will empower farmers. The focus was being laid on four key areas - reducing input costs, ensuring a fair price for the produce, reducing wastage and creating alternate sources of income.
Agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh inaugurated the conference and reiterated that the government was keen to make agriculture policies and programmes income-centric.
Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North-Eastern Region (MOVCDNER)
Realising the potential of organic farming in the North-Eastern region of the country, (MoA&FW) launched a Central sector scheme titled Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region for implementation in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura from 2015-16 to 2017-18. The scheme aims at development of certified organic production in a value chain mode to link growers with consumers and to support the development of entire value chain starting from inputs, seeds, certification and creation of facilities for collection, aggregation, processing, marketing and brand building initiative. The scheme was approved with an outlay of Rs 400 crore for three years.
Marketing progress
The different brands have already been developed at state level. These are as follows:
|
Serial number |
State |
Brand name/trademark |
|
1 |
Arunachal Pradesh |
Organic Arunachal |
|
2 |
Manipur |
Organic Manipur |
|
3 |
Mizoram |
Mission Organic Mizoram |
|
4 |
Nagaland |
Naga Organic |
|
5 |
Sikkim |
Sikkim Organic Mission |
|
6 |
Tripura |
Tripura Organic (underprocess) |
|
7 |
Assam |
Organic Assam |
Organic store by Sikkim State Co-operative Supply and Marketing Federation Ltd and Kendriya Bhandar
Opened organic retail outlet cum restaurant at Dilli Haat, INA, New Delhi, and implemented through the North-Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Limited (NERAMAC)
Participation in exhibitions and trade fairs
Buyer-seller meets, workshops, videos, photographs and publicity material
Activities and competitions with MyGov
NERAMAC and NAFED (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd) are providing hand-holding in marketing of organic produce/branded organic products
To ensure remunerative returns:
Enhancing of MSP declared at 150 per cent of the cost of production
The Union Budget for 2018-19 had announced the pre-determined principle to keep MSP at levels of one-and-a-half times the cost of production. Accordingly, the Government has increased the MSPs for all notified Kharif, Rabi and other commercial crops with a return of at least 50 per cent of the cost of production for the season 2018-19. This decision of the Government was a historic one, as it fulfills the commitment to the farmers to provide 50 per cent return over the cost of production for the first time for all mandated crops.
Procurement over the years
Between the financial years 2010 and 2014, the total procurement was Rs 3,500 crore only, whereas between financial years 2014 and 2018, it has risen 10 times and reached to Rs 34,000 crore. For procurement of these agri-commodities between 2010 and 2014, the Government guarantee of Rs 2,500 crore was provided with expenditure of only Rs 300 crore; while between 2014 and 2018, the guarantee amount has been increased to Rs 29,000 crore with expenditure of Rs 1,000 crore.
Agricultural marketing
National Agriculture Market (e-NAM)
A hundred and fifteen wholesale regulated markets have been integrated with e-NAM platform to achieve the target of total 585 e-NAM markets in 16 states and two Union Territories (UTs)
The financial assistance has been sanctioned for cleaning, grading, sorting and packaging facilities in 320 existing e-NAM mandis and for compost unit in 245 existing e-NAM mandis
Rs 137.33 crore has been sanctioned for the cleaning, grading, sorting and packaging facilities and compost unit
Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved the proposal for integration of additional 415 wholesale regulated markets with e-NAM platform between 2018 and 2020
Formation of farmer producer companies
Twenty-two farmer producer companies (FPCs) involving 22,000 farmers, were formed and registered between January and December 2018. As on December 7, 2018, a total of 773 FPOs have been registered and 123 FPOs are under the process of registration.
Upgradation and development of rural haats as Gramin Agricultural Markets (GrAMs)
A survey of 9,477 rural haats has been conducted through Directorate of Marketing and Inspection (DMI), an attached office under DAC&FW, for finding the status of infrastructure, type of commodities, etc. in rural haats for better formulation of strategy of developing of rural haats
Proposal for creation of Agri-market Infrastructure Fund (AMIF) of Rs 2,000 crore for developing marketing facilities in Gramin Agriculture Markets (GrAMs) has been approved by Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC), headed by secretary, expenditure. The proposal is being submitted to the Cabinet Committee for Economic Affairs (CCEA) for approval
DAC&FW has formulated the operational guidelines for operations and management of Gramin Agricultural Markets (GrAMs), which has been approved by the agriculture minister. The operational guidelines have been shared with all states and Union Territories, as well as the Ministries of Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Tribal Affairs to guide them in operation and management of GrAMs.
Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure (AMI)
Agricultural Marketing Infrastructure (AMI), a sub-scheme of the Integrated Scheme of Agricultural Marketing (ISAM), was re-opened for the period coterminous with the 14th Finance Commission (i e upto 2019-20).
International cooperation
Bilateral cooperation
MoU signed
Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare inked MoUs for cooperation in agriculture and allied sectors with Iran and Uzbekistan. Towards the implementation of the existing , meetings of Joint Working Groups (JWG) were held with nine countries, namely, Portugal, Madagascar, the Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, Philippines, Nepal, Russia and Australia.
India-Nepal Cooperation
The inaugural meeting of the India-Nepal New Partnership in Agriculture was held under the chairmanship of Singh and Nepal’s agriculture minister of Nepal in New Delhi. Among the areas of cooperation identified, India is assisting Nepal in developing organic farming and soil health cards with an expenditure of Rs 432.397 lakh to be provided by India. Two training programmes on organic farming and certification, for 20 Nepalese participants each, were organised by the National Centre for Organic Farming (NCOF), Ghaziabad. While the former is complete, the latter will take place between February 1 and March 2, 2019.
USAID
India is collaborating with USAID to provide training for nationals of 20 Asian and African countries viz.Liberia, Kenya, Malawi, Botswana, DR Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda from Africa and Afghanistan, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Myanmar and Vietnam. Twenty-four US-India-Africa triangular international training programmes were successfully completed in 2018. Under this USAID-funded project, 565 executives from 20 countries have since been provided training.
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)
India officially joined SCO as full member in June 2017 at a summit in Astana. The ministry participated in the meeting of the SCO Permanent Working Group (PWG) on Agriculture, and agriculture ministers of SCO member states held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in September 2018. A seven-point SCO Action Plan for 2018-2019 on the implementation of the agreement between the governments of the SCO member states on cooperation in agriculture was signed.
