3. India’s Agricultural Production and Statistics-The Hindu-14-10-2022

GS-3
AGRICULTURE
PRELIMS AND MAINS
India’s Agricultural Production and Statistics-

Doing by Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying (DAHD) statistics, India’s milk production in 2011-12 was 127.9 mt with a daily per capita availability of 289 gm.

These were 210 mt and 427 gm respectively in 2020-21.

● Discrepancies:

2% growth in milk production does not seem to square up with the sales growth of organised dairies, averaging only 2-3% per year.

Discrepancies in the per capita daily milk availability of 427 gm for 2020-21.

Even after factoring in indirect/non-household consumption and population increase since 2011-12, the per capita average for these high milk-drinking states is unlikely to exceed 0.5-0.6 litres.

● Demand is the key:

Knowing what and how much Indians are consuming is useful for analysis of demand and supply in other farm produce too.

Helps in framing policies better, whether on fixation of minimum support prices and tariffs or on crop diversification.

Also, cereal production from 2016-17 to 2020-21 has averaged 267 mt.

The Agriculture Ministry’s output estimates are accurate, the country is producing 30 mt-plus of surplus grain every year.

● Need for Household Consumer Expenditure (HCE) Index:

The current consumer price index — used to calculate inflation and also for RBI’s interest rate actions — is based on the consumption basket from the 2011-12 HCE survey.
That basket is perhaps outdated and not truly representative of the items, both food and non-food, being consumed by Indian households today.