Notwithstanding encouraging forecasts for wheat and oilseed production this year, the Centre’s worries on the rice front continue.

According to advance projections of the Union Agriculture Ministry, rice production would again be stagnant this year. As per latest forecasts, rice output from the kharif crop would be around 80.15 million tonnes as compared to last year’s kharif output, at 80.11 million tonnes.

Despite widespread rain this monsoon, major paddy growing states of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,  Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh which accounted for 50 per cent of the total production in the country, are forecast to yield lower output during the kharif season.
What is really of concern to the ministry is a continuing trend of farmers switching over from paddy cultivation to commercial crops like oilseeds, groundnut and cotton, which also require less moisture. 

Commercial crop
At a recently concluded national rabi conference in the capital, the key rice growing states attributed declining production to the switch over from paddy cultivation to commercial crop cultivation.

“In Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, around eight lakh hectares of rice growing areas have been lost to oilseeds,” said a senior ministry official. Besides this, vast tracts of paddy fields in West Bengal, Kerala and Assam have been washed away by floods this year.