The Fourth Advance Estimates of production of major crops for 2014-15 have been released by the Department of Agriculture & Cooperation here today. As per these estimates, the production of major crops during 2014-15 is as under:
Ø Foodgrains – 252.68 million tonnes
· Rice – 104.80 million tonnes
· Wheat – 88.94 million tonnes
· Coarse Cereals – 41.75 million tonnes
· Maize – 23.67 million tonnes
· Pulses – 17.20 million tonnes
· Tur – 2.78 million tonnes
· Gram – 7.17 million tonnes
Ø Oilseeds – 26.68 million tonnes
· Soyabean – 10.53 million tonnes
· Groundnut – 6.56 million tonnes
· Rapeseed& Mustard – 6.31 million tonnes
Ø Cotton – 35.48 million bales (of 170 kg each)
Ø Sugarcane – 359.33 million tonnes
It may be noted that production of kharif crops during 2014-15 suffered due to bad monsoon. Unseasonal rains/hailstorm during Feb-March 2015 had significant impact on production of rabi crops. As a result of setback in kharif as well as rabi seasons, the production of most of the crops in the country has declined during 2014-15.
As per 4th Advance Estimates for 2014-15, total foodgrains production in the country is estimated at 252.68 million tonnes which is lower by 12.36 million tonnes than the last year’s record foodgrains production of 265.04 million tonnes. Total production of rice is estimated at 104.80 million tonnes which is lower by 1.85 million tonnes than the last year’s record production of 106.65 million tonnes. Production of wheat estimated at 88.94 million tonnes is lower by 6.91 million tonnes than the record production of 95.85 million tonnes achieved during 2013-14. Total production of Coarse Cereals estimated at 41.75 million tonnes is also lower by 1.54 million tonnes than their production during 2013-14.
Production of pulses estimated at 17.20 million tonnes is lower by 2.05 million tonnes than their production during the last year. With a decrease of 6.07 million tonnes over the last year, total production of oilseeds in the country is estimated at 26.68 million tonnes.
Production of sugarcane is estimated at 359.33 million tonnes which is higher by 7.19 million tonnes as compared to last year. Total production of cotton estimated at 35.48 million bales (of 170 kgs each) is marginally lower than last year but higher by 3.01 million bales than the average production of last 5 years. Production of jute & mesta is estimated at 11.45 million bales (of 180 kg each) which is marginally lower than their production during the last year.
In an agricultural year (July-June), the Directorate of Economics & Statistics (DES), Department of Agriculture& Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture releases four Advance Estimates followed by Final Estimates of production of major agricultural crops of the country. First Advance Estimates, released in September when Kharif sowing is generally over, cover only Kharif crops. Second Advance Estimates are released in February next year when rabi sowing is also over. These estimates covering Kharif as well as rabi crops take into account firmed up figures on kharif area coverage along with available data on crop cutting experiments for yield assessment of Kharif crops and tentative figures on area coverage of rabi crops. Third Advance Estimates incorporating revised data on area coverage for rabi crops and better yield estimates of Kharif crops are released in April-May.
Fourth Advance Estimates are released in July-August and by this time fully firmed up data on area as well as yield of Kharif crops and rabi crops are expected to be available with the States. As such, Fourth Advance Estimates are considered to be almost as good as Final Estimates released in next February along with Second Advance Estimates for the subsequent agricultural year. In order to allow sufficient time to States to take into account even the delayed information while finalizing area and yield estimates of various crops, the Final Estimates are released about seven months after the Fourth Advance Estimates and no revision in the State level data is accepted after release of Final Estimates by DES.
