283.37 million tonnes of food grains produced in 2018-19

New Delhi: Riding on record rice and wheat production, the country is estimated to have produced 283.37 million tonnes of food grains during 2018-19 – higher by 17.62 million tonnes than the previous five years’ (2013-14 to 2017-18) average production of food grain. However, the output is down by 1.64 million tonnes from last year’s foodgrains output of 285.01 million tonnes.

According to the third advance estimate, the country is likely to have a record output of 115.63 million tonnes of rice and 101.20 million tonnes of wheat, which is again the highest ever.

“The production of rice is 2.87 million tonnes higher than last year while the output of wheat is higher by 1.33 million tonnes as compared to wheat production of 99.87 million tonnes achieved during 2017-18. The overall foodgrain production has been down due to fall in the output of coarse grains like maize, bajra and jowar among others,” said a senior agriculture department official.


The country has also witnessed a record production of sugarcane at 400.37 million tonnes – higher by 20.46 million tonnes over 2017-18.

However, the production of pulses has been down by 8.65% to 23.22 million tonnes from the last year’s production of 25.42 million tonnes.

“Due to drought like conditions in Maharashtra and Gujarat, the out of pulses has been down. But due to excess production last year, we have enough stock o meet our requirements this year,” the official said.

The production of oilseeds stood at 31.42 million tonnes – almost at last year’s level. The output of soyabean is 13.74 million tonnes while the rapeseed production is 8.78 million tonnes.

“The total oilseeds production is higher by 1.77 million tonnes than the five years’ average oilseeds production,” the official said.