The Union Government has set a target of food grain production in 2024-25 at 341.55 million tonnes. Union Minister of Agriculture, Shivraj Singh Chouhan said this while inaugurating the National Conference on Agriculture for Rabi Campaign 2024 at NASC Complex, New Delhi. The total Foodgrain production in the country during 2023-24 is estimated at record 332.29 million tonnes which is higher by 2.61 million tonnes than the production of food grains of 329.68 million tonnes achieved during 2022-23. The target for 2024-25 is 9.26 million tonnes higher than last year.
The minister said that a committee has been constituted to reduce the cost of transportation to reduce the gap between the procurement price and sale price. The States in collaboration with the Centre need to work on increasing production based on Agro-climatic conditions to make India the largest food basket for the world.
During the discussions, it was highlighted that to meet the increasing demand of edible oil in the country and to become self-reliant, the Government aims at increasing the production of oilseeds from 39.2 MMT in 2022-23 to 69.7 MMT in 2030-31, increase area under cultivation from existing 29 mha to 33 mha and improve yield from 1353 kg/ha to 2112 kg/ha by 2030-31. The panellists emphasised on the importance of conducting research on short-duration, high-yielding seed varieties and implementing comprehensive mechanisation for the cultivation of pulses and oilseeds.
Addressing the Conference, Dr. Devesh Chaturvedi, Secretary Agriculture instructed the States to ensure completion of registry for all farmers in the States by 31st March 2025 in camp mode to enable farmers to avail benefit of PM-KISAN. He also highlighted the need for increasing the productivity of oilseeds and pulses. He said, a check needs to be placed on overdosing of pesticides, circulation of spurious pesticides and seeds in the market. He urged States to ensure use of applications like NPSS, IPMS and SATHI and spread awareness in their respective States.
Sh. Rajat Kumar Mishra, Secretary Fertilizer emphasised on use of drones for nano urea and crop monitoring. Dr. Himanshu Pathak, Secretary (DARE) and DG (ICAR) requested States to increase use of bio-fortified seeds, use of new variety and climate resilient seeds and seed replacement for increasing productivity.