The government has set foodgrain production target of 168.88 million tonnes (mt) for the kharif 2025 cropping season. This is up 1.5 per cent from the corresponding previous season’s output.
Setting a higher production target, Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday announced a fortnight long “Vikshit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan” (developed agriculture resolve campaign) to commence from May 29, which aims to cover about 2 crore farmers and help them improve their linkage with agriculture research.
Chouhan also announced that adequate availability of fertilizers has been assured by the Fertilizer Ministry for the ensuing kharif season. But, he advised the Fertilizer Secretary to demonstrate the efficiency of nano-Urea and nano-DAP on the field to expand its adoption so that consumption of conventional fertilizers (in granular form) is reduced.
According to a presentation made by Pramod Kumar Meherda, Additional Secretary, Agriculture Ministry, the target of foodgrains for kharif 2025 is 1.5 per cent of actual production of 166.39 mt in kharif 2024.
For rice, the main cereal crop for the kharif season, production target has been set at 120.75 mt against actual production of 120.68 mt as last year the output exceeded the target of 111.50 mt due to an expansion of area after market rates of the produce received record prices.
Pulses target has been tentatively fixed at 7.74 mt for kharif 2025 and will be updated after receiving feedback from the States on the Pulses Mission Programme, Meherda said at the event. The Centre aims to get 3.7 mt of tur produced in the ensuing season, 1.51 mt of urad and 1.62 mt of moong, each higher than their respective production in the previous season.
Officials also announced that the government has decided to implement procurement of oilseeds and pulses from next season starting October after verification through PoS (point of sales) machine with biometric face authentication. It has also decided to limit the procurement period to 60 days, with a possible extension of 30 days if necessary. No further extension will be allowed beyond the 90-day limit.
“It has been observed that there is a sudden jump in procurement on the 13th week or towards the end of the purchase period, which should not normally happen,” Agriculture Secretary Devesh Chaturvedi said.
Chouhan also announced that the Centre will consider making amendments in Seeds Act, 1966 to curb sales of spurious seeds and protect farmers interest and seeking feedback from the States, he informed them about a draft Bill being prepared now by the Centre.
On the “Vikshit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan” to be conducted between May 29 and June 12, some 2,000 teams will be formed to cover all districts in which each team will comprise four scientists from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), staff of local agriculture office and Krishi Vigyan Kendra of the district. He advised ICAR to hold three meetings by one team in a day and try to mobilise 10-12 lakh farmers every day (by all teams) for those meetings. Also, each meeting should be held at various locations and should be of 2.5-3 hours duration, he added.
Stressing that the teams will create awareness about climate-resilient seed varieties, availability of fertilizers, monsoon forecast and benefits of existing government programmes, Chouhan sought active involvements of State agriculture ministers to make the campaign successful.
The minister claimed that there is adequate availibility of seeds and fertilizers to fulfil the demand of these two important farm inputs. However, some states pointed out that it is far from the reality as they seldom receive indented amount of seeds. But, ICAR officials claimed that there has been a constant drop in indent for breeder seeds in last few years.
Pointing out that there is a huge difference in crop yield among States and within a State also, Chouhan appealed the ministers and officials to address the issue seriously.
As reported by businessline last month, there is a gap in availability of Di Ammonimum Phosphate (DAP) of 4.8 mt (5.7 mt kharif demand against 0.9 mt opening stock), which can only be met through import. Last year, the domestic production and import together had generated 4.2 mt of DAP during April-September. Though direct import share of DAP was over 47 per cent in total sales of the crop nutrient, the import of phosphoric acid of nearly 2 mt/year and rock phosphate of 9.5-10 mt/year to manufacture it in India further push import dependence.
Published on May 8, 2025
The government has set foodgrain production target of 168.88 million tonnes (mt) for the kharif 2025 cropping season. This is up 1.5 per cent from the corresponding previous season’s output.
Setting a higher production target, Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday announced a fortnight long “Vikshit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan” (developed agriculture resolve campaign) to commence from May 29, which aims to cover about 2 crore farmers and help them improve their linkage with agriculture research.
Chouhan also announced that adequate availability of fertilizers has been assured by the Fertilizer Ministry for the ensuing kharif season. But, he advised the Fertilizer Secretary to demonstrate the efficiency of nano-Urea and nano-DAP on the field to expand its adoption so that consumption of conventional fertilizers (in granular form) is reduced.
According to a presentation made by Pramod Kumar Meherda, Additional Secretary, Agriculture Ministry, the target of foodgrains for kharif 2025 is 1.5 per cent of actual production of 166.39 mt in kharif 2024.
For rice, the main cereal crop for the kharif season, production target has been set at 120.75 mt against actual production of 120.68 mt as last year the output exceeded the target of 111.50 mt due to an expansion of area after market rates of the produce received record prices.
Pulses target has been tentatively fixed at 7.74 mt for kharif 2025 and will be updated after receiving feedback from the States on the Pulses Mission Programme, Meherda said at the event. The Centre aims to get 3.7 mt of tur produced in the ensuing season, 1.51 mt of urad and 1.62 mt of moong, each higher than their respective production in the previous season.
Officials also announced that the government has decided to implement procurement of oilseeds and pulses from next season starting October after verification through PoS (point of sales) machine with biometric face authentication. It has also decided to limit the procurement period to 60 days, with a possible extension of 30 days if necessary. No further extension will be allowed beyond the 90-day limit.
“It has been observed that there is a sudden jump in procurement on the 13th week or towards the end of the purchase period, which should not normally happen,” Agriculture Secretary Devesh Chaturvedi said.
Chouhan also announced that the Centre will consider making amendments in Seeds Act, 1966 to curb sales of spurious seeds and protect farmers interest and seeking feedback from the States, he informed them about a draft Bill being prepared now by the Centre.
On the “Vikshit Krishi Sankalp Abhiyan” to be conducted between May 29 and June 12, some 2,000 teams will be formed to cover all districts in which each team will comprise four scientists from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), staff of local agriculture office and Krishi Vigyan Kendra of the district. He advised ICAR to hold three meetings by one team in a day and try to mobilise 10-12 lakh farmers every day (by all teams) for those meetings. Also, each meeting should be held at various locations and should be of 2.5-3 hours duration, he added.
Stressing that the teams will create awareness about climate-resilient seed varieties, availability of fertilizers, monsoon forecast and benefits of existing government programmes, Chouhan sought active involvements of State agriculture ministers to make the campaign successful.
The minister claimed that there is adequate availibility of seeds and fertilizers to fulfil the demand of these two important farm inputs. However, some states pointed out that it is far from the reality as they seldom receive indented amount of seeds. But, ICAR officials claimed that there has been a constant drop in indent for breeder seeds in last few years.
Pointing out that there is a huge difference in crop yield among States and within a State also, Chouhan appealed the ministers and officials to address the issue seriously.
As reported by businessline last month, there is a gap in availability of Di Ammonimum Phosphate (DAP) of 4.8 mt (5.7 mt kharif demand against 0.9 mt opening stock), which can only be met through import. Last year, the domestic production and import together had generated 4.2 mt of DAP during April-September. Though direct import share of DAP was over 47 per cent in total sales of the crop nutrient, the import of phosphoric acid of nearly 2 mt/year and rock phosphate of 9.5-10 mt/year to manufacture it in India further push import dependence.
Published on May 8, 2025
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It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution
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