Food

India's Green Revolution is an awesome success story. Improved farming techniques and the use of irrigation and high-yield grains have greatly increased agricultural production. From being an importer of food after independence; India has now become an exporter of food.

Total food grain production has increased from 50.82 million tonnes in 1951 to 176 million tonnes in 1990 to 208 million tonnes in 2006. Crop Yield of total foodgrains has increased from 1552 (kg per hectare) in 1997-98 to 1703 (kg per hectare) in 2004-05.

Arable/ Irrigated land sizes
Source - UN Food and Agriculture Organization
(Million hectares)

Absolute size of	India	World	World Rank
Arable land Irrigated Area	170 45.8	1444 249.6	Second Second

Note:
Irrigated land area in India is 558,080 sq km (2003) and arable land is 48.83% of its total area (2005)

World Production of Wheat, Rice and Corn, 2002
Source - UN Food and Agriculture Organization/ 2004 World Almanac
(in thousands of metric tons)

	Country	Wheat	Rice	Corn
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.	China * India Russia USA France Turkey Germany Ukraine Pakistan Canada	91,290 71,814 50,557 43,992 38,986 21,000 20,817 20,550 18,226 15,689	176,553 116,580 483 9,568 105 400 --- 80 6,343 ---	123,175 10,570 1,541 228,805 16,013 2,500 3,738 4,171 1,689 9,065

Note:
China's figures are unofficial and could be wrongly inflated. These are FAO estimates

The top wheat exporters in the world:
Source - UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 2004 World Almanac
(in thousands of metric tons)

Leading Exporter	2001 figures
USA Canada France Australia Argentina Germany Kazakhstan Ukraine India Russia	25,782 17,658 15,621 15,542 10,789 5,710 3,022 2,852 2,649 1,635

The top rice exporters of Rice in the world:
Source - UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 2004 World Almanac
(in thousands of metric tons)

Leading Exporter	2001	1995
Thailand Vietnam USA Pakistan India China	7,685 3,729 2,622 2,423 2,193 2,011	6,197 1,988 3,083 1,852 4,913 ---

Commercial catch of fish, crustaceans and Mollusks, 2001
Source - US Dept of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admin., National Marine Fisheries
(in thousands of metric tons, live weight)

	Country	2001	1998
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.	China Peru India Japan USA * Indonesia Chile Russia Thailand Norway	42,579 7,996 5,965 5,521 5,405 5,068 4,363 3,718 3,606 3,199	39,545 4,346 5,245 6,030 5,154 4,595 3,558 4,518 3,508 3,259

As per a 2006 report of UN's FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), India’s share in the global aquaculture output is 4.2 per cent in terms of both volume and value. The share of China, on the other hand, is 69.6 per cent in terms of production and 51.2 percent in value.

The ten countries, in terms of ranking, are China, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Korea republic, Bangladesh and Chile. The report has reckoned India’s farmed fish output (2004) at 2.47 million tonnes, against China’s 41.32 million tonnes. The value of India’s total reared fisheries output is assessed at $ 2.93 million, against China’s $ 35.99 million. The annual per capita consumption of fish in India has steadily risen from 2.9 kg prior to 1981 to 4.7 kg post-2000.

World's leading producers of other agricutural products, 2001
Source - UN Food and Agriculture Organization
(in millions of metric tons)

Production indicator	India's rank in the world
Tea production Groundnuts (shell) Cashews Pulses Sesame seeds Peanuts Raw sugar Mangoes Millet Betel nuts Cardomom Ginger Pepper Turmeric Rapeseed Sugarcane Jute Onions Cauliflowers Milk (cow/ buffalo) Coconuts Cotton (seed) Cotton (lint) Eggs (Hens)	First First First First First First First First First First First First First First Second Second Second Second Second Second Third Third Fourth Fifth

The government sponsors programs to teach farmers scientific farming methods. It also provides credit to allow farmers to buy improved varieties of seeds and fertilizers.

The government encourages increased food production by paying farmers higher prices for their crops. Despite a rapidly growing population, India now produces enough food to meet most of its needs.

Indian farmers