Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today said foodgrains production in 2012-13 will be lower than last year's record output of 257.44 million tonnes. However, Mr Pawar said availability would be sufficient to meet domestic
demand . Addressing the Economic Editors Conference, Mr Pawar said the government would make efforts to compensate the projected fall in kharif foodgrains output during the ongoing rabi season. Last month, the Agriculture Ministry had projected 10
per cent fall in kharif foodgrains production at 117.18 million tonnes in view of poor rains and drought in more than 360 taluks in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat. The minister said that monsoon deficit has come down to 6 per cent now. Mr Pawar said that availability of foodgrains stock in the country would not be a problem and in fact, the country has surplus grains for exports as well. He said as against the buffer requirement of around 21.2 million tonnes, the government has 70 million tonnes of stocks in the central pool.