'India needs 333 MT grain production to meet demand by 2050'

To meet its growing demand, India needs to lift its annual food production to 333 million tonnes by 2050 against the current level of 252 million tonnes, according to a report.
The foodgrain production in India has increased significantly over the years, but the monsoon rains and other local factors decide the output, said the Grant Thornton-FICCI report.
The report titled "Transforming Agriculture Through Mechanisation" also suggested that the use of proper farm equipment can increase farm productivity by up to 30 per cent and reduce the input cost by about 20 per cent.
"...To meet the future demand for food by 2050, the annual food grain production needs to grow to the level of 333 million tonnes," the report said.

It also said that percentage of agricultural workers of the total workforce is likely to drop to 25.7 per cent by 2050 from the earlier 58.2 per cent in 2001.
As far as the farm equipment market in India is concerned, it is estimated to grow at over 10 per cent during the period 2013-18.

The size of the farm equipment sector is estimated at approximately USD 6.5 billion and has seen strong growth in recent years, it added.
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"The legal entitlement to receive highly subsidised foodgrains under the Act now extends to about 80 crore persons against the total intended coverage of 81.34 crore persons under the Act," Paswan said.

At the current coverage, the minister said, the monthly allocation of foodgrains to states/UTs under this law is about 45.5 lakh tonnes.
Governments of Kerala and Tamil Nadu took the decision to implement the law after the Centre took hard decision to supply grains to these two states at MSP rates for APL families, Paswan said.
Besides pursuing states/UTs to implement this law, Paswan said the government has taken a number of steps to improve the functioning of the public distribution system (PDS) and curb leakages.
He informed that the government has so far lined 71 per cent of the ration cards with Aadhar card and the rest would be done at the earliest.

This has resulted in deletion of about 2.62 crore ration cards across all states, he added.
"The grains are being delivered to dealers at their door steps. Dealers margins have been increased. We are doing end-to-end computerisation," Paswan said.
Fair price shops are being automated for distribution of foodgrains through an electronic point of sale (e-PoS) device that authenticates beneficiaries at the time of distribution and
also electronically captures the quantity supplied.
"As of October 31, e-PoS devices are operational in 1,61,854 fair price shops," he said.
For smooth functioning of PDS, the Centre is providing financial assistance for meeting expenditure of inter-state transportation and handling of foodgrains and dealers margin.

"The assistance for fair price shops dealer margin also contains a component of assistance for installation and operation of PoS devices. So far, Rs 1,874 crore has been released to States in 2016-17," Paswan said.
The minister also highlighted that the government is implementing direct benefit transfer (DBT) in Chandigarh, Puducherry and urban areas of Dadar & Nagar Haveli.