Minor disappointment

The performance of minor crops has remained less than the anticipated targets in 2011-12 mainly due to bad weather during the crop season.
According to an official the minor crops accounted for 17 per cent towards agriculture while their contribution in overall Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was around 4.3 per cent in 2011-12.
Official said that the production of gram for the year 2011-12 was 281 thousand tones against the target of 676 thousand tones. The unsatisfactory performance of this important pulse crop was because of bad weather during the crop season.
Similarly the production of onion was recorded at 1,640 thousand tones as compared with 1,872 thousand tones target and 2010-11 achievement. The reduction in this crop was attributed to 14.9 per cent decrease in area sown. Among oilseed crops, the production of sunflower remained 55.7 per cent less against the target of 559 thousand tones mainly because of 26 per cent reduction in area sown.
The poor performance of one of the major oilseed crop is expected to put more pressure on already higher edible oil imports. However, the output of potato that is 4,104 thousand tones has surpassed the target of 3,328 thousand tones and also 2010-11 production of 3,492 thousand tones.
On the other hand maize, one of the important major crops, performed extraordinarily better with the production of 4,271 thousand tones against the target of 3,656 thousand tones and previous year’s production of 3,707 thousand tones.
The official further said that the achievement may be attributed to increase in area sown (11.2 per cent), use of high quality hybrids and improved Production technologies. Since this production was unusually high so target for 2012-13 has been increased too much and fixed at 4.3 million tons.