India may witness record wheat output of 88.31-mn tonnes in 2012: Sharad Pawar

NEW DELHI: Mr Sharad Pawar, Agriculture Minister, has announced that wheat production is likely to reach record 88.31-million tonnes during the 2011-12 crop year (July-June) as compared to 86.87-million tonnes in the previous year.

Mr Pawar, said, “I am not all worried about wheat production because the situation is good. Whatever the assessment we have made on production, there will be improvement.”

Mr Pawar has stated that there is nothing to worry about wheat production getting impacted due to yellow rust disease in few Indian states such as Punjab and Haryana.

He has displayed concern over the domestic production of pulses moving behind the risen demand. A lot of work is required to be done to meet the supply gap.

This year, the domestic pulses manufacturing is likely to touch 16.5-17 million tonnes. Until 2009-10, India's production of pulses has stayed at a level of 14-million tonnes as compared to the annual demand of almost 18-million tonnes. In 2010-11, the domestic output has seen improvement to 18.24-million tonnes.

Mr Pawar has stated that India's overall foodgrains production is likely to reach record 250-million tonnes this year due to the policy initiatives taken up in the past two years mainly in the eastern states.