Crop production dips in Gujarat for second consecutive year

There has been a considerable decrease in cultivation area as well as overall production of food crops and non-food crops in Gujarat in 2015-16 vis-a-vis the previous year, according to the latest estimates presented in the Socio-Economic Review of Gujarat.

This is the second consecutive year when Gujarat has registered a negative growth in agriculture sector, as the previous year's socio-economic review gave similar estimates.

According to the latest review which was tabled in the Assembly recently, production of foodgrains during 2015-16 is estimated at 61.92 lakh tonnes compared to 77.95 lakh tonnes in 2014-15, a reduction of 16.13 tonnes in one year.

During the year 2014-15, production of cotton bales, each of 170 kg, was 96.24 lakh bales. This has decreased to 88.01 lakh bales during 2015-16, stated the survey.

Similarly, production of oilseeds is estimated at 46.05 lakh tonnes during 2015-16 against the production of 48.82 lakh tonnes during the year 2014-15. Groundnut production is estimated to remain 28.92 lakh tonnes in 2015-16 against 30.18 lakh tonnes in the previous year.

According to the figures given in the review, major agro- produces showed negative growth over last year.

Wheat production dropped by 15.17% (in 2015-16), Jowar dropped by 58.26%, Bajra dropped by 4.76% and rice production showed negative growth of 31.61% as compared to 2014-15 production.

Cotton saw a drop of 8.55%, groundnut production registered negative growth of 4.17% while oil seeds saw a dip of 5.67% during 2015-16.

The drop in production was commensurate with the drop in area of cultivation over previous year. Area of cultivation for wheat has dropped by 20.05%, jowar by 48.88, bajra by 6.30, cotton by 5.34 and groundnut by 0.50%. Only the area for oilseeds showed positive growth of 1.06 over previous year.

The socio-economic review of 2014-15 had estimated a reduction of 14.35 tonnes in foodgrain production in comparison to 2013-14. Similarly, it has suggested dip in the production of cotton bales as well as oilseeds.

Just like the latest review, the previous report for 2014-15 also suggested reduction in the area of land used for cultivation of various crops. The reason for reduction is scarce rainfall in the last two years.