9.7% yoy rise in India’s wheat output: Skymet

In a report on Rabi crops outlook, Skymet Weather Services has estimated that the country’s wheat production this year would be around 113.66 million tonnes – 9.7% higher from last year’s production of 103.60 million tonnes. The private weather monitoring also predicts that the output of Bengal gram would be at 10.74 million tonnes – 8% higher than the last year’s production of 9.94 million tonnes. Further, it expects rapeseed and mustard production to rise 2.7% from last year’s 9.25 million tonnes to 9.50 million tons this year. 

However, the study clarifies “As per the ground situation, the actual production could be below the estimates. Wheat production should not go above 110 million tonnes and Bengal gram production should also be below 10 million tonnes.” This explains the slight disparity between the second advance estimates of the government released in February & those of this agri-risk solutions company. According to government’s analysis, the production of wheat is likely to be 106.21 million tonnes whereas that of gram would be 11.22 million tonnes.

The Skymet report also states that the markets have slid by more than 10% due to Covid-19 crisis. “The financial crises has reached the worst ever since 2008/09. The year started with farmers looking at the biggest locust attack in 25 years in January 2020. Soggy weather conditions on account of heavy rains accompanied with strong winds and hailstorms have damaged crop in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, wherein adverse weather has affected rabi crop like wheat, masoor, jowar, mustard, peas etc,” it says.