Union Agriculture Minister, Sh Narendra Singhr Tomar on April 19 inaugurated National Conference on Agriculture for Kharif Campaign 2022-23 at NASC Complex, New Delhi.
- The objective of this conference was to review and assess the crop performance during the preceding crop seasons and fix crop-wise targets for Kharif season in consultation with State Governments, ensure supply of critical inputs and facilitate adoption of innovative technologies with a view to enhance production and productivity of the crops.
- The Conference set National targets for total food grain production set at 3280 lakh tonnes for the year 2022-23 compared to expected production of 3160 lakh tonnes during current year.
- Target for production of pulses and pulses have been fixed at 295.5 and 413.4 lakh tonnes in 2022-23. Nutri-cereals production has to be increased from 115.3 in 2021-22 to 205.0 lakh tonnes in 2022-23.
- The strategy would be to increase area through inter-cropping and crop diversification and productivity enhancement through introduction of HYVs and adoption of suitable agronomic practices in low yielding regions. the country is maintaining an increasing trend in food grain production since 2015-16.
- Total food grain production has increased by 25% in last 6 years from 251.54 to 316.01 million tonnes. Oilseeds have followed the same trend and have shown a growth of 42% from 25.25 million tonnes in 2015-16 to 37.15 million tonnes in 2021-22.
- India’s exports of agricultural products have grown by 19.92% during 2021-22 to touch $50.21 billion ( Rs 376575 crore).
- The commodities like wheat, other cereals, rice (other than Basmati), soya meal, raw cotton, fresh vegetable, and processed vegetables etc have registered most positive growths.
