Near-normal monsoon may boost foodgrain production
Red Book
Red Book

GS Advance Program for UPSC Mains 2025, Cohort - 1 Starts from 24th October 2024 Click Here for more information

  1. The government has targeted a modest increase in foodgrains production for the next crop year of 2019-20 after the Indian Meteorological Department(IMD) has forecast normal monsoon in 2019.
  2. India Meteorological Department(IMD) had said that monsoon rains are expected to be normal in 2019 which is 96% of the Long Period Average (LPA).The IMD defines normal rainfall as between 96% and 104% of the Long Period Average(LPA).LPA (50 year average) of monsoon rains in India is 89 cm.
  3. The target of foodgrains production for 2019-20 crop year has been set at 291.1 million tonnes comprising 147.9 MT in kharif season and 143.2 MT during rabi.
  4. In India,there are two major cropping seasons: a) Kharif and b) Rabi. There is another cropping season Zaid i.e. summer season (March to June). Examples of Zaid cops are watermelon,bitter gourd etc.
  5. The kharif cropping season is from July –October during the south-west monsoon.Major Kharif crops include rice,maize,sorghum,groundnut etc.
  6. Rabi cropping season extends from October-March (winter). Major Rabi crops are wheat, barley, oats etc. Wheat is the main Rabi crop in India. It is sown between late October and December; while the harvesting starts from April onwards.
Print Friendly and PDF
Blog
Academy
Community