The Center on Saturday said it was confident of achieving record foodgrain production in the 2024-25 rabi season despite delays in fertilizer shipment, citing favorable soil moisture conditions and adequate water levels in reservoirs.
Speaking at a national conference here, Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said there was sufficient availability of key fertilizers such as urea and diammonium phosphate (DAP) despite delay in shipments due to geopolitical tensions.
“The shipments are delayed… However, there is no shortage of fertilizers. We have made arrangements and there is enough supply for the rabi season,” Chouhan said.
The ministry has set a foodgrain production target of 164.55 lakh tonnes for the rabi season 2024-25, including 115 lakh tonnes of wheat and 18.15 lakh tonnes of pulses.
Sowing of rabi (winter) crops has begun and will accelerate after Diwali.
Fertilizers Secretary Rajat Kumar Mishra said India is diverting DAP shipments from Morocco via South Africa after Red Sea routes were disrupted, adding 21 days to delivery times to Western ports.
India imports around 60 per cent of its 5.5 million tonnes of DAP demand for the rabi season from Russia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and China, Mishra said.
Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Director General Himanshu Pathak expressed optimism about the upcoming season.
“If we take into account the water level in the reservoirs, IMD forecasts and soil moisture, record production is expected in this year’s rabi season,” he said.
Pathak advocated the adoption of biofortified and climate-resilient seeds, highlighting that around 70 per cent of last year’s wheat crop used such varieties, which contributed significantly to a bumper crop.
Agriculture Secretary Devesh Chaturvedi emphasized the need to increase the area under chickpea cultivation, noting that production remained low in the last two years, requiring imports.
The average area under rabi cultivation in the last five years was 668 lakh hectares, with wheat accounting for 312 lakh hectares, officials said.
The government has announced higher minimum support prices for wheat and other winter-sown crops to encourage planting.
The conference was attended by six state agriculture ministers along with Union Ministers of State for Agriculture Ramnath Thakur and Bhagirath Choudhary.
Officials also discussed digital initiatives, including recording farmers’ data, and crop surveys currently underway in two states will be rolled out nationwide next year.
Disclaimer:
The information contained in this post is for general information purposes only. We make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the post for any purpose.
We respect the intellectual property rights of content creators. If you are the owner of any material featured on our website and have concerns about its use, please contact us. We are committed to addressing any copyright issues promptly and will remove any material within 2 days of receiving a request from the rightful owner.