New Delhi, February 17
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today said there was no chance of the wheat production going down in Punjab and Haryana this year, as was being feared following reports of yellow rust cases from North India. He said the disease was not that serious and the yield during 2011-12 crop year (July-June) would be 88.31 million tonnes (MT) as against 86.87 MT last year.

“I am not at all worried about wheat production because the situation is good. Whatever the assessment we have made on production, there will be improvement. I don’t expect any problem,” Pawar said.

However, there are concerns about the domestic production of pulses going down, primarily due to insufficient rainfall in December, which may force the country to rely on imports to bridge the “small gap” between demand and supply.

Pawar said a lot of work needed to be done to bridge the supply gap. “Whether it is foodgrain or horticulture produce, we are doing quite well. There are only two areas, where we have to work more. One is production of pulses,” he said.

The country’s total foodgrain production is expected to touch a record 250 MT this year.

The country needs good grain stock to fulfil requirement under the proposed National Food Security Bill, which aims to provide subsidised foodgrain to 63.5 per cent of the country’s population. While Punjab and Haryana are looking forward to exceed their combined targeted wheat output of 274.61 lakh tonnes this season, horticulture produce is also set for an all-time record production of over 240 million tonnes.

Addressing the National Conference on Horticulture Production and Productivity Pawar said the increase in production had resulted in higher per capita availability of fruits and vegetables, besides substantial increase in export.