Major crop production to dip by 2.3% in FY'13: CMIE

"Production of major crops is projected to decline in 2012-13. A fall in output of both food and non-food crops is expected to dip by 2.3 per cent," Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy said in its monthly report.

Kharif acreage continued to remain sluggish as of September 28, and sowing dipped by 5.5 per cent to 971 lakh hectares, it pointed out.

The report projects a fall of 4.6 per cent in kharif foodgrain production in 2012-13.

"Our estimates of rice, coarse grain and pulses output are higher than Agriculture Ministry's estimates. We expect late sowing and an improvement in weather conditions to narrow the decline in kharif food grain production to 123.7 million tonne in 2012-13," it said.

Kharif rice cultivation dipped by over four per cent to 367.7 hectares by September 28 and is expected to fall by three per cent to 88.7 million tonne in FY13, it further said.

"We project a healthy 6.3 per cent growth in rabi rice production in 2012-13, consequently, the total rice output is projected to decrease by a smaller 1.9 per cent to 102.3 million tonne," CMIE said.

The coarse cereals are the worst affected by the irregularities in rainfall.

Coarse cereals production is projected to decrease by 7.9 per cent to 38.5 million tonne in 2012-13, of which 29 million tonne is estimated to be produced during the ongoing kharif season, it said.

Production of pulses is estimated to fall by 1.3 per cent to 16.9 million tonne in 2012-13. This is mainly due to decline in production of pulses other than gram and tur.

Output of these pulses is projected to be lower at 6.3 million tonne in 2012-13, of which, 3.1 million tonne is expected to be produced in the kharif season.