Though India has registered a record wheat and rice output, yields of major crops are much lower when compared with the production developed countries. According to the latest report of UN's food and agriculture body FAO, India lags behind badly in world average yield of rice, cotton, pulses while in wheat it is close to the global benchmark.
The FAO report relates to authenticated data up to year 2010. India is likely to produce a record 102 million tonne of rice and around 90 million tonne of wheat this year. However, the yield has plateaued over the years. Given the limitations in the expansion of acreage, the main factor for long-term output growth is an improvement in yields.
According to the latest FAO report, the average yield of rice in India is 2.3 tonne/ha as against the global average of 4.374 tonne/ha. China is the largest producer of rice with an output of 197 million tonne with a per-hectare yield of 6.5 tonne while countries like Australia (10.1 tonne), US (7.5 tonne), Russia (5.2 tonne) lead the tally.
The report says India has done better in wheat by achieving an yield closer to the global average. It has recorded an average yield of 2.9 tonne per hectare as against the global benchmark of 3.0 tonne/ha. However, it's still far from countries like France (7.0 tonne), US (3.11 tonne) and China (4.8 tonne).
Water shortage, absence of high-yield varieties of seeds and the lack of research and development are the basic causes behind the low per-hectare yield of crops in India. "If production has to go up, yield must improve. For this, we are working on new areas of research like, stem cell research, nanotechnology.
The FAO report relates to authenticated data up to year 2010. India is likely to produce a record 102 million tonne of rice and around 90 million tonne of wheat this year. However, the yield has plateaued over the years. Given the limitations in the expansion of acreage, the main factor for long-term output growth is an improvement in yields.
According to the latest FAO report, the average yield of rice in India is 2.3 tonne/ha as against the global average of 4.374 tonne/ha. China is the largest producer of rice with an output of 197 million tonne with a per-hectare yield of 6.5 tonne while countries like Australia (10.1 tonne), US (7.5 tonne), Russia (5.2 tonne) lead the tally.
The report says India has done better in wheat by achieving an yield closer to the global average. It has recorded an average yield of 2.9 tonne per hectare as against the global benchmark of 3.0 tonne/ha. However, it's still far from countries like France (7.0 tonne), US (3.11 tonne) and China (4.8 tonne).
Water shortage, absence of high-yield varieties of seeds and the lack of research and development are the basic causes behind the low per-hectare yield of crops in India. "If production has to go up, yield must improve. For this, we are working on new areas of research like, stem cell research, nanotechnology.
No comments:
Post a Comment