• The Fourth Advance Estimates of production of major agricultural crops for the year 2021-22 have been released by the Union ministry of agriculture.

• The ministry said a record output is estimated for rice, maize, gram, pulses, rapeseed and mustard, oilseeds and sugarcane.

• The crop year 2021-22 was from July 2021 to June 2022.

• In a crop year, the government releases four estimates before the final one at different stages of crop growth and harvesting period. 

• The assessment of production of different crops is based on the data received from states and validated with information available from other sources.

Estimates by the ministry

• The First Advance Estimates covering only Kharif crops are released in September, when Kharif sowing is generally over. The Second Advance Estimates are normally released in February, the following year when Rabi sowing is also over. The Second Advance Estimates cover kharif as well as rabi crops. 

• The Third Advance Estimates incorporate revised data on area coverage for Rabi crops and better yield estimates of Kharif crops. These are released in April-May. The Fourth Advance Estimates are released in July-August. By this time fully firmed up data on area as well as yield of Kharif crops and Rabi crops are expected to be available with the states. 

• Final Estimates are released after about seven months of the release of Fourth Advance Estimates, that is in February of the following year. This allows sufficient time to state governments to take into account even delayed information while finalising area and yield estimates of various crops.

Cropping seasons in India

There are three distinct cropping seasons in India, namely Kharif, Rabi and Zaid.

i) Kharif Season: It largely coincides with Southwest Monsoon in the months of June – September. Major crops cultivated in northern states include rice, cotton, bajra, maize, jowar and tur. In southern states, major crops are rice, maize, ragi, jowar and groundnut.

ii) Rabi Season: It begins with the onset of winter in October-November and ends in March-April. The major crops cultivated in northern states include wheat, gram, rapeseeds, mustard and barley. In southern states, major crops include rice, maize, ragi, groundnut and jowar.

iii) Zaid Season: Agricultural crops which are grown in the short duration between Rabi and Kharif crop season, mainly from March to June, are called Zaid crops. The cultivation of watermelons, cucumbers, vegetables and fodder crops during this season is done on irrigated lands. However, this type of distinction in the cropping season does not exist in southern parts of the country.

Highlights of the Fourth Advance Estimates

• The country’s overall foodgrain production is estimated to be record 315.72 million tonnes in the crop year that ended in June 2022.

• In the 2020-21 crop year, the country’s foodgrain output, comprising wheat, rice, pulses and coarse cereals, stood at record 310.74 million tonnes.

• As per the data, wheat production is pegged lower at 106.84 million tonnes in the 2021-22 crop year as against 109.59 million tonnes in the previous year. The wheat production is estimated to have declined due to heatwave that resulted in shrivelled grains in the northern states of Punjab and Haryana.

• Rice production is projected at record 130.29 million tonnes in the crop year under review as against 124.37 million tonnes in the year-ago period.

• The output of coarse cereals is likely to decline to 50.90 million tonnes from 51.32 million tonnes.

• Pulses output is estimated to be at record 27.69 million tonnes compared to 25.46 million tonnes in the 2020-21 crop year.

• In the non-foodgrain category, the production of oilseeds is projected to be record 37.69 million tonnes in the 2021-22 crop year as against 35.94 million tonnes in the previous year.

• Rapeseed/mustard seed production is pegged at record 17.74 million tonnes for the 2021-22 crop year.

• According to the data, sugarcane production is estimated at record 431.8 million tonnes compared to 405.39 million tonnes in the previous year while cotton output is expected to drop to 31.2 million bales (170 kg each) from 35.24 million bales.

• Production of jute/mesta is estimated to be 10.31 million bales (180 kg each) in the 2021-22 crop year as against 9.35 million bales in the previous year.

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