Doesn’t smell right: Centre blames ‘methodology’ for ‘garlic boom’ in Madhya Pradesh

The Agriculture Ministry has expressed its incapacity to correct info error associated to garlic manufacturing even as Madhya Pradesh has revised its 2017-18 estimates. This indicates that the country’s garlic output will continue to be a accomplishment story ‘on record’ — a just about 81 per cent boost to 29.1 lakh tonnes (lt) in 2018-19 from the past year and more than 4 periods in the case of Madhya Pradesh.

“The huge variation in figures of production of garlic in Madhya Pradesh between 2017-18 and 2018-19 is thanks to the modify of supply agency and the improve in methodology adopted for estimating area/creation of garlic in the Condition. Even though the Condition has retrospectively revised the figures for 2017-18 to 1.86 lakh hectare and 18.82 lt, the exact same could not be integrated as the estimates for 2017-18 had already been finalised,” Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar claimed in the Lok Sabha in a penned reply on March 15.

Nonetheless, the minister mentioned this in the footnote of a table listing the statewise facts of the final 4 many years.

Organization Line previous month documented how the Centre did not accurate the knowledge mistake even after the Madhya Pradesh govt had alerted it. The Centre however assumes the State’s garlic spot as 92,500 hectares and creation as 4.05 lt for 2017-18 and 1.78 lakh hectares and 18.21 lt for 2018-19.

In accordance to the Condition data, seven big districts — Dewas, Dhar, Indore, Mandsaur, Neemuch, Ratlam and Ujjain, each individual with additional than 10,000 hectares less than garlic — collectively developed 14.5 lakh tonnes in 2020, which is 73 for every cent of the full output of Madhya Pradesh. Though the output has elevated from the 2017 level in each and every of them, only Neemuch (major producing district) confronted a drop of 36 for every cent due to a tumble in area.

Responding to a concern by MP Ramcharan Bohra, the Minister mentioned the governing administration is applying the Mission for Built-in Development of Horticulture (MIDH) for crops including garlic. Beneath MIDH, assistance is presented for area growth of rhizomatic spices, including garlic (maximum of ₹12,000 for every ha), for a highest of 4 hectares per beneficiary in a single instalment.

Nearly 15 States and Union Territories have invested ₹15.84 crore of Central resources for rhizomatic spices these kinds of as ginger, garlic and turmeric amongst 2018-19 and 2020-21.

Published on


March 16, 2022