Kharif sowing at record high, says Agriculture Ministry

New Delhi [India], October 7 : Farmers planted Kharif crops on 10 lakh acres more compared to the previous record of 1,085 lakh hectares and the figure is about 28 lakh hectare more than the normal sowing of 1,067 hectares, Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Agarwal said on Wednesday.
Addressing a press conference here, Agarwal said there has been a record sowing area in Kharif 2020.
"Pulses has been sown in an additional 7 lakh hectares, oilseeds in an additional 18 lakh hectares and rice in four lakh hectares," he said.
Agrawal said that the government declares Minimum Support Price (MPS) for the Fair Average Quality (FAQ) of agricultural crops like cereals, pulses, oilseeds and commercial crops every year at the beginning of the sowing season on the basis of the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP). Based on the recommendation of Swaminathan Committee report, the Government announced MSP to ensure minimum 1.5 times cost of production since Kharif 2018-19 season. Under the Price Support Policy, Government is committed to providing assurance of remunerative prices to farmers in case of fall in the market price of their produce.
DV Prasad, CMD, Food Corporation of India, said that the procurement of paddy from farmers across the country has registered an increase of 5 per cent in current KMS (Kharif marketing season) till now as compared to the corresponding period last year. Maximum procurement has happened in Punjab where 7,82,685 MT paddy has already been procured from the farmers through APMC system as against 24,452 MT procured last year.