Finance Minister Pranab Mukerhjee on Monday said drought situation is not as alarming as it initially appeared because the recent rainfall has improved the farm sector prospects.
"Thanks to late monsoon, the problem of drought is not as alarming as it was visualised in the month of July and early part of August," he said at the India Today Conclave.
With huge stocks of wheat and rice, Mukherjee said, the country was in a better position to deal with drought and likely shortfall in foodgrain output on account of drought.
"Despite this drought, why we felt little confident was because of huge buffer stock which we were having in respect of foodgrain," Mukherjee said, adding the country's wheat and rice stocks are far in excess of buffer norms.
According to food ministry data the country has food grains reserve of 47 million tonnes, enough to meet requirement of public distribution system for the next 13 months.
