The government has set country's wheat production target at 82 million tonnes in 2010-11 crop year, up by 1.3 million tonnes from last year's record output, a top agriculture ministry official said.
India, the world's second largest producer, had produced a record of 80.71 million tonnes wheat in 2009-10 crop year (July-June) despite a severe drought. Wheat is grown only in rabi season.
"Wheat production took a beating last year because of the terminal heat. If there is no terminal heat this year, output is expected to be 82 million tonnes," Agriculture Secretary P K Basu told PTI when asked about target for this crop year.
The output of wheat was almost flat in 2009-10 at 80.71 million tonnes, against 80.68 million tonnes a year-ago due to rise in temperature during the grain-filling stage in the key producing states such as Punjab and Haryana.
Basu noted that wheat output would be better in 2010-11 because of the good monsoon, which has filled the reservoirs to the brink ensuring no dearth of water for the crop.
"The ground water quality is also better because of good rains, which has helped the saline water to go down," he said, adding that this would lead to both higher acreage and yield.
The Agriculture Ministry has convened a Rabi campaign on September 17-18 to prepare a strategy for the ensuing season.
Expected record output in the current year could prompt the government to lift the ban on exports as the Centre is already grappling with storage problem in the wake of bumper wheat production and procurement in the last two years.
India had banned exports of wheat since early 2007 and made imports duty-free to augment domestic availability.
It had imported about seven million tonnes of wheat in 2006 and 2007 to meet its buffer stock requirement.
