The Hindu : Karnataka News : State Government fixes foodgrains output target at 12. 5 million tonnes

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Tuesday, Jun 03, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka

State Government fixes foodgrains output target at 12. 5 million tonnes

T.V. Sivanandan

Emphasis to be laid on oilseeds production
Target for the year has been set at 21 lakh tonnes

GULBARGA: The State Government has fixed a foodgrains production target of 125.24 lakh tonnes on 115.95 lakh hectares for the three agricultural seasons in the year 2008-09.

Official sources told The Hindu here on Monday that last year’s target was 119.70 lakh tonnes covering an area of 113.13 lakh hectares for both oilseeds and commercial crops.

The initial estimate of actual foodgrains production last year is 117.75 lakh tonnes: 106.73 lakh tonnes of cereals and 11.52 lakh tonnes of pulses.

Rainfall

Sources said the Agriculture Department had taken into consideration the forecast by the Meteorological Department about rainfall this year before fixing the target. One of the major worries of the department was the steady decline in the production of oilseeds over the past few years.

Last year, while the target fixed for oilseeds was 18.86 lakh tonnes, the actual production was only 15.57 lakh tonnes. For 2008-09 the Government has fixed an oilseeds production target of 20.83 lakh tonnes, and the Agriculture Department will encourage farmers to cultivate oilseeds. The high prices of oilseeds are also likely to motivate farmers to go in for oilseeds cultivation.

The Government has fixed a target of 74.73 lakh hectares in the kharif season, 34.31 lakh hectares in the rabi season and 6.91 lakh hectares for summer crops.

It also hopes to increase the area under commercial crops during the current year.

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