HYDERABAD: The State is poised to achieve a bumper foodgrain production of 113.25 lakh tonnes for kharif this year which will be 34 per cent higher than last year.

Talking to reporters here on Friday, Agriculture Minister N. Raghuveera Reddy said the kharif output would perhaps an all-time record and attributed this to timely and sufficient rain and the special efforts made by the Government.

These included a basic shift of emphasis towards agriculture, higher credit of Rs. 8,661 crores to farmers and a systematic campaign to optimally use fertilisers and pesticidesm

He expected the season's rice production to be 83 lakh tonnes, 29 per cent higher than the last year even though heavy rain damaged 12 lakh tonnes of paddy.

The record rice production is due to a steep hike in productivity which reached 3,175 kg a hectare, aided by several factors, compared to the normal of 2,695 kg.

Other foodgrains like Jowar, maize, coarse grain, redgram, greengram are also set to register high output.

Interestingly, the output of groundnut fell in spite of a good monsoon due to "moisture stress".

Its output declined to 10.73 lakh tonnes from 12.5 lakh tonnes last year. But, oilseeds as a whole registered a marginally higher production of 16.37 lakh tonnes.

Cotton and sugarcane outputs will be higher but that of mesta and chillies will tumble.

Suicide by ryots down

Mr. Reddy reckoned the total value of the kharif production at Rs. 18,964 crores at the present MSP rates. He said the agriculture growth rate of 4 per cent would be restored.

He said that suicide by farmers had stopped due to the farmer-friendly policies of the Rajasekhara Reddy Government.

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