The Hindu : Karnataka News : Foodgrains production may go up

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Oct 31, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Foodgrains production may go up

T.V. Sivanandan

There has been an appreciable increase in the kharif crop sowing area

GULBARGA: Appreciable increase in the sowing area of kharif crops, particularly cereals and pulses, this year has given the hope that foodgrains production will go up in the State.

Against the target fixed by the Government for kharif crops — 72.33 lakh hectares of land —, the actual coverage up to the end of the first week of October was 74.19 lakh hectares of land. Kharif crops were sown in more than the average covered area during the corresponding period last year which was 67.11 lakh hectares. The actual coverage was 66.90 lakh hectares during the same period last year.

Sources told The Hindu here on Tuesday that against the target of 35.35 lakh hectares fixed for kharif cereals, the achievement was 36.63 lakh hectares. The target fixed for pulses was 12.90 lakh hectares, while the actual achievement was 15.25 lakh hectares.

Foodgrains target fixed by the Government for this year was 48.25 lakh hectares and the actual coverage 51.88 lakh hectares. However, one area of concern was oilseeds, which is showing a declining trend.

Against the target of 17.58 lakh hectares fixed for this year, the actual coverage has been 15.45 lakh hectares. However, this year has been better as oilseeds were sown only in 14.76 lakh hectares during the same period last year.

Among cereals, the sources said, paddy and maize exceeded the target fixed. Other cereals, including jowar, ragi, bajra and millets, were on par with the target fixed. Against the target of 9.92 lakh hectares fixed for paddy, the actual coverage was 10.06 lakh hectares. The increase in the coverage of maize was phenomenal standing at 10.88 lakh hectares against the target of 8.10 lakh hectares.

The sources said that red gram sowing achieved an all-time high this year with a coverage of 6.23 lakh hectares against the target of 5.60 lakh hectares. Similarly, there has been an increase in the coverage of black gram and green gram this year when compared to the previous years.

There has been an increase in the coverage of horticulture crops also this year. Against a normal coverage of 95,593 hectares under onion during the period, this year the actual area under onion was 1,15,299 hectares, followed by chilli in 1,40,796 hectares. Tomato has been cultivated in 23,234 hectares of land and potato in 49,575 hectares of land.

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