South Asia-Good Neighbourliness


cording to official estimates, reached the unprecedented level of 116 ran tonnes in 1975-76, The union minister of state for agriculture, A P Shinde, has pointed out that this indeed means food production is at last rising faster than papulation. At 48 mn tonnes, rice production was 4 mn tonnes higher than last year; and procurement out of the kharif crop has reached 5.3 mn tonnes, exceeding the target of 4.6 mn tonnes. As for wheat, the rabi crop is so good that Punjab will have a record production despite a 4 lakh tonnes loss due to hailstorm, Mandis in the northern slates have been flooded with grain arrivals and already, over a four- week period, 1.6 mn tonnes have been procured in different parts of the country