The government on Friday set a target of eight million tonnes of more food grains production in the Rabi season, including 3.5 million tonnes of additional rice to make up for losses of summer-sown crops due to drought.It has now targetted to achieve 124.18 million tonnes of food grains during the Rabi season, which includes 82.58 million tonnes of wheat, up by two million tonnes from last year, Agriculture Commissioner N B Singh said in New Delhi on the sidelines of a seminar held to form a starategy for the winter-sown (rabi) crops.Singh said the production of rice, the worst-affected summer sown crop because of drought in about half the country, is targetted to be raised to over 18 million tonnes this Rabi.The optimism emanates from an expected rise in sowing areas of 4.5 million hecatres under various crops this Winter, Singh said.Similarly, the Centre expects the production of pulses to be increased by one million tonnes this Winter to 10.88 million tonnes, coarse cereals by 1.5 million tonnes to 12.64 million tonnes and oilseeds by 1.2 million tonnes to 11.47 million tonnes.Elaborating on the rationale behind the high targets, Agriculture Secretary T Nanda Kumar said, "We are targetting higher production by early sowing and by using high-yielding varieties of seeds."Since sowing could not be undertaken in some areas due to drought during the Kharif season, the government now wants to make the most out of the vacant land by facilitating planting of different crops early.It now targets to raise areas under rice by 12-15 lakh hectares, wheat by 5 lakh hectares, pulses by 15 lakh hectares and coarse cereals by 10 lakh hectares, the commissioner said.Though the rise in area under wheat is targeted to be up by only 5 lakh hectares, better yield is expected to push up production by 2 million tonnes because of good moisture content in soil following late rains in September.The Centre has directed states to see that sowing of wheat is completed by November-end.Punjab and Haryana have also been asked to phase out the use of older wheat varieties with new ones like DBW-17 and PBW-550 to raise production.To achieve the targets, the Centre is also stressing on the supply of vital inputs like seeds and fertilisers to farmers."The Fertiliser Secretary (Atul Chaturvedi ) was here and he said there was no shortage of fertilisers this season," Singh said."Some states have asked for more seeds and we have assured them of supply. We have 148.39 lakh quintals of seeds with us against the requirement of 130.87 lakh quintals," he said.However, in an official statement issued after the conference today, the Agriculture Ministry has admitted to a shortage of only lentil seeds.