Output of kharif rice may drop by 4-5 mn tonnes due to drought: Govt

In full 2021-22, around 81,000 tonnes of broken rice was allotted from FCI's godowns for ethanol production

India’s rice production this kharif season could fall by 4-5 million tonnes (mt) due to a drought in four states and a shift towards other crops elsewhere, the government said on Friday.

“In domestic production, a loss of 6-7 mt was anticipated, but due to good monsoon (rainfall) in some pockets, the loss might now reduce to 4-5 mt, which will be at par with last year’s production,” an official statement said.

In the 2021-22 crop year, India produced 111.7 mt of rice in the kharif season.

This is the first official estimate of the impact of the low monsoon rainfall in Uttar