Foodgrain ouput 2013-14 touches record 265 MT

India's foodgrain production for the agricultural year 2013-14 touched a record 264.77 million tonnes (MT) on the back of a good monsoon last year, as per the government's revised estimates Thursday.

"India has produced 264.77 million tones of food-grain this year as compared to 257.13 million tones in the previous year," the agriculture ministry said releasing its latest estimate of food-grain production for the crop year 2013-14 ended in June. the agriculture ministry said.

The ministry in its latest estimate revised the wheat production to 95.91 MT as against 95.85 MT in the previous estimated released in May. Similarly, rice output has been raised to 106.54 MT from 106.29 MT estimated in May.

"Record production has also been achieved in the case of pulses like tur (3.29 MT) and gram (9.88 MT)", the ministry said, estimating the overall production of pulses at 19.27 MT.

The revised production took into account Kharif crops of the year 2013 and Rabi crops of the year 2013-14.

Sowing of Kharif crops, however, showed a steady increase with improvement of rains this week. The total sown area is, however, still less than the corresponding period last year.

"The total sown areas as on August 14 stands at 876.70 lakh hectare as compared to 928.03 hectare at this time last year," the ministry said.