Growth in India’s food grain production and agriculture has declined in 2017-18 compared to the previous year due to lower plantings of rain-fed Kharif crops and an uneven south-west monsoon, says Nomura Research Report.
The report says that the farmers have increased area under sugarcane and cotton but reduced the area under all other crops such as rice, pulses, oilseeds, and coarse grains. Farmers planted a smaller area under pulses and oilseeds as wholesale prices fell 33% and 14% year-on-year, respectively, in July 2017. “There is little incentive for farmers to plant this crop as realisations are expected to below—a typical cobweb cycle response,” it said.
According to the report, one of the major reasons for the decline in crop sown area is weather related. "The spatial distribution of rains has been uneven with the Northwest and Southern regions receiving below normal rains, while floods have hurt standing crops in many other states," the report said.
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