India is the largest producer (25% of global production), consumer (27% of world consumption) and importer (14%) of pulses in the world. Pulses account for around 20% of the area under foodgrains and contribute around 7-10% of the total foodgrains production in the country.

1. CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Cereals share in total production
3. Cereals Status in India
4. Importance of cereals
5. Long term vision of cereals
6. Challenges or Constraints of cereals production
7. Programes and schemes for cereals
8. Conclusion

2. INTRODUCTION
 Cereals are most important commodity group of crops that
provide high in Energy, minerals and amino acids
 India is one of the largest cereals crop cultivating country in
the World, cereals share to total food grain production is
about 85 to 90 % in the country.
 Cereals provide more than 50% of worlds energy and
protein
 They cultivated more than 2/3 of the cultivated land in the
world

3.  In comparison to other vegetables, pulses. These are rich in
CHO, a significant rich in protein, a good source for B
group vitamins, including folate and also good source for
minerals like Fe, Mg, Cu, P and zinc
 The potential of cereals to help address future global food
security, nutrition and environmental sustainability needs.

4. SHARE OF CEREALS IN TOTAL PRODUCTION
(3rd estimation of 2021)
Food grain production includes Cereals and Pulses only
Total Cereals Production 279.8MT
Total Pulses Production 25.58 MT
Total Food grain Production 305.44MT
(Source: Directorate of Economics & Statistics, 2021)

5. Cereals
Rice 121.46MT
Wheat 108.75MT
Nutri /Coarse cereals 49.66 MT
Maize 30.24MT
Total Cereals Production 279.8MT
(Source: Directorate of Economics & Statistics, 2021
Cereals Status in India

6. Area Under major cereals crop
Crop Area (in M ha )
Rice 43.79
Wheat 29.58
Pulses 29.99
Oilseeds 24.65
Nutri-Cereals 24.21

7. IMPORTANCE OF CEREALS CROPS IN INDIA
 cereals are rich in CHO and found to be significant source of
protein.
 They are the largely consumed important constituent of Indian
diet
 They supply additional fodder for cattle.
 They provide raw material to various industries.
 They are used in preparation of starch, adhesives ,oils and
alcohols.

8. WHY LONG TERM VISION ON CEREALS IS
NEEDED
 Production and Productivity Vision
 Nutrition importance
 Widening gap between supply and demand
 Cereals yield of India is lower than global average
 Rapidly Growing Indian Population
 Cereals are important in environmental point of view

9. CHALLENGES INDIA HAS TO FACE TO
ACHIEVE TARGETED YIELD
 India has high population pressure on land and other resources to
meet its food and development needs.
 Natural resource base of land, water and bio-diversity is under
severe pressure.
 factor productivity in major cropping systems and rapidly
shrinking resource base.
 There is need to produce more without depleting our natural
resources any further.
 Water, which is going to be probably the scarcest factor in the
twenty-first century.

10. • Climate change has emerged as a major challenge to our
agriculture.
• The immediate problems relate to intra- seasonal variability of
rainfall, extreme events and unseasonal rains.
• Reduction in the soil fertility and loss of essential soil nutrients
• Shortfall in cereals availability in the nation is mainly due to less
seed replacement rate of improved varieties
• Pests, diseases, and extreme weather events are likely to affect
substantially the potential of cereals production.

11. CHALLENGES OR CONSTRAINTS OF
CEREALS PRODUCTION

12. SOIL RELATED CONSTRAINTS
a) Chemical constraints :
1. salinity,
2. sodicity,
3. acidity
4. nutrient toxicities etc.
b) Physical constraints :
1. high or low permeability,
2. sub soil hard pan,
3. surface crusting,
4. fluffy paddy soils,
5. sandy soils etc.

13. Socio economic
 Difficult access to sufficient irrigation water
 Unavailability of quality seed
 High cost of irrigation
 Nitrogen fertilizer expensive/in short supply
 Inadequate farmer knowledge/training
 Insufficient access to agricultural information
 High price of inputs other than nitrogen

14. Abiotic
 Drought or intermittent water stress
 Soil fertility depletion Nitrogen deficiency
 Flooding of low lying fields
 Deficiency or toxicity of micronutrients
 Phosphorus unavailability
 Cyclone/typhoon damage
 Soil physical/structural degradation
 High temperature stress
 Low temperature (cold) stress

15. Biotic
 Weed competition
 Leaf and stem pests
 Diseases
 Rodent damage
 Storage pests
 Root and soil diseases
 Soil insects

16. Management-related
 Inadequate water management
 Inappropriate/poor nutrient/fertilizer use
 Late planting of crop
 Use of low yielding or old variety
 Poor crop rotations and sequences
 Inappropriate/poor insect/disease management
 Field crop establishment difficulties
 Inappropriate/poor weed management
 Poor seedling nursery management

17. Environmental
 Low rainfall amounts
 Mid- season dry spells
 Short season length
 Late start of the rainfall season
 Abrupt end of rainfall season
 Extremely high rainfall
 Waterlogging
 Crop failure, drought or hung

18. MAJOR ISSUES ON
Rice
 Low temperature is the greatest concern of rice growers in the temperate
regions
 Water problems, water is the primary factor determining the success of the rice
crop
 Change in soil characteristics long-term soil puddling and drying lead to the
formation of hard pans 5-15 cm below the surface
 Environmental problems the flooded rice field has a high potential to produce
methane while the potential of upland rice for methane production is not
significant
 Improvement of rice yield productivity
 Rice quality
 High costs of rice production
 Lodging

19. Wheat
 Terminal heat stress; the northwestern plains are highly
productive but more prone to high temperature stress caused by
dry winds from the Thar desert
 Emerging disease and pest problems
 Drought tolerance
 Complexities of the rice-wheat system
 Quality issues
 Germplasm dissemination in India
 Photosynthetic or radiation-use efficiency (RUE

20. Maize
 Diseases Insect-Pest Weeds
 Price variability Marketing problem
 Non-availability of machines
 Low market demand
 Storage of grains
 Environmental constraints
 Difficult to access information on price
 Lack of grading facility
 Not aware of grading structure

21. Bajra
 Difficult access to sufficient irrigation water
 Drought or intermittent water stress
 Inappropriate/poor nutrient/fertilizer use
 Foliar diseases
 Early insect damage
 Mainly grown in rainfed condition
 Crust formation during germination stage

22. Nutri-cereals
 Decline in area
 Low genetic yield potential
 Low realized yield
 Instability in production
 Poor transfer of technology
 Inadequate farmer knowledge/training
 Inappropriate/poor nutrient/fertilizer use
 Late planting of crop
 Use of low yielding or old variety

23. ROAD MAP TO MITIGATE THE CONSTRAINTS
 Bringing additional area under nutri-cereals
 Improving productivity
 Improving yield stability
 Extensive irrigation
 Expanding hybrid production
 Increasing mechanization:

24.  Development of resilient cereals crops to climate
adversities
 Production and supply of quality seeds
 Reducing post harvest losses
 Ensuring attractive price to producers
 Ensuring timely availability of critical inputs
 Efficient transfer of technology

25. AGRONOMIC STRATRGIES
1. summer plough to retain soil moisture
2. Grow short duration crops & varieties
3. Use of contour ridges
4. Plant early
5. Cultivate deeply
6. Grow drought tolerant crops
7. Use planting basins (conservation farming)
8. Apply mulch (especially on planting basins)
9. Application of the Right Fertilizers and Its Rates with the
Right Time
10. Go for drainage in water lagging situations

26. BREEDING STRATERGIES
 Breeding for Yield Enhancement
 .Breeding for Pest Resistance and Tolerance
 Breeding for Improved Quality
 Breeding for Drought Resistance or Tolerance
 .Breeding for Maturity Duration or Earliness
 Breeding for Agronomic Characteristic
 . Breeding for Synchronous Maturity
and Non-Shattering Characteristics
 Breeding for Elimination of Toxic
Substances

27. PROGRAMMES AND SCHEMES FOR CEREALS IN
INDIA
 High yielding variety programme -1966
 Minimum support prices
 Pradhan manthri Fasal bhima yojana - 2016
 National Food security mission( 2007-2008)
 National Food security act -2013
 Pradhan mantri kisan SAMPADA yojana – 2014-15

28. Minimum support prices for in the year 2020-21
crop MSP FOR 2021-22 RS/Q
PADDY(COMMON)
(GRADE A)
1940
1960
WHEAT 1975
MAIZE 1870
JOWAR(HYBRID)
(MALDANDI)
2738
2758
BAJRA 2250

29. CONCLUSION
 Cereals play in the human diet, their availability needs to be
increased indigenously.
 Since India is by far the largest producer, consumer and
increasing domestic production is essential.
 India's role is important for the world as it not only
produces around 279.8 million tonnes of cereals but also
need export cereals for increase income of nation

30.  Provision of life-saving irrigation with water-harvesting
structures may help increase cereals production in India
significantly.
 Promoting adoption of shorter-duration cereals varieties and
varieties that are disease and pest-resistant through intensive
extension efforts can help increase cereals production
 Assessing the benefits to the ecosystem due to cereals
cultivation and finding ways to reward cereals growers
directly or indirectly may also help increase cereals
production.