Foodgrain production

Why it matters

Foodgrains feed India's people and its public food system. A good harvest keeps cereal and pulse prices in check, raises farm incomes and lets the government buy grain at the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for the central pool. That pool supplies grain under the National Food Security Act and other welfare schemes.

A poor harvest raises food prices, which hit poorer households hardest, and cuts rural spending. A very large harvest brings its own costs: grain bought at the MSP must be stored, and surplus stocks tie up warehouse space and public money.

What it is

Foodgrain production is the total harvest of cereals and pulses in an agricultural year, July to June. Cereals are rice, wheat and nutri or coarse cereals such as maize, jowar, bajra and ragi.

The Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare releases four estimates for each year. The first advance estimate covers kharif crops once kharif sowing ends; the second adds rabi crops; the third, in May, adds summer crops; the final estimate follows around September–October. The figures rest on state data on area and yield, checked against remote sensing and crop cutting experiments.

Output moves with the monsoon, the area sown and yields. Crop production estimates also feed the estimates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for agriculture made by the National Statistics Office (NSO).

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