In Maharashtra this fiscal the yield from the kharif and rabi seasons is likely to witness a plunge in food grains output.
Fresh estimates from the state agriculture department show that the production of foodgrain in the state is estimated to fall from 169 lakh tonnes last fiscal to 133 lakh tonnes this fiscal.
The agriculture department production data, which refers to the 2017 kharif season and the ongoing rabi season, includes estimates after the recent hailstorms in the state.
As per the state agriculture department, that the fall in production of pulses like Green Gram, Soybean and Black Gram was due to the dry spell during the monsoon last year, while Paddy or Rice suffered due to both the dry spell during last year’s kharif season and pest attacks.
Variation in the weather was one of the reasons for the fall in production of wheat during the rabi season. “Wheat needs cold weather for about 40 days. However, the rainfall in December 2017 and the recent hail and unseasonal showers adversely affected wheat production.
Production of pulses fell because farmers reduced sowing last year after the low minimum support price offered to them in 2016,” he said.
