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Source: Government of India

Production of rice in the country shows increasing trend during the last five years. Year 2002-03 was a drought year and during 2004-05, rainfall from the south-west monsoon was 13% less than its long period average which affected the rice production.

 The production of rice in the country for the past five years, i.e., from 2002-03 to 2006-07 was as follows:

                        * 4th advance estimates released on 19.07.2007

On the basis of the monthly per capita quantities of consumption reported in the National Sample Survey 61st Round Report on "Household Consumption of Various Goods and Services in India, 2004-05" and the population projections given by the Office of the Registrar General of India, the consumption of rice in the country including seed, feed and wastage was estimated at 85.77 million tonnes during 2004-05 which rose to  87.01 million tonnes during 2005-06 and to 88.25 million tonnes during 2006-07.

India is an exporter of rice. However, an Integrated Cereals Development Programme in rice based cropping systems has been under implementation since October 2000 to promote production of rice. In order to increase the production of rice further, recently a Centrally Sponsored Scheme “National Food Security Mission” (NFSM) has also been launched in the country from 2007-08. It aims at increasing the production of rice by 10 million tonnes by the end of the Eleventh Plan, i.e., by 2011-12 through area increase and productivity enhancement in targeted districts.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research has been conducting research to increase the productivity and production of rice in the country. So far more than 740 varieties and 29 hybrids have been developed for different ecologies.

This information was given in the Rajya Sabha today by the Minister of State for Agriculture, Shri Kanti Lal Bhuria in a written reply.
 

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