Agriculture is the mainstay of the Indian economy. Agriculture and allied sectors contribute nearly 22 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP of India), while about 65-70 per cent of the population is dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. The agricultural output, however, depends on monsoon as nearly 60 per cent of area sown is dependent on rainfall. During 2005, Southwest monsoon was not well distributed in time. It was below normal in June, active in July, subdued in August and became active in September over the country. For the country as a whole, the seasonal rainfall from 1 June to 30September was 99 per cent of its long period average (LPA). According to the Third Advance Estimates on production of food grains and commercial crops released on 5 May 2006 the production of food grains during 2005-06 was estimated at 210.01 million tonnes, which is more than the food grains production of 2004-05 by 11.65 million tonnes or 5.9 per cent. The estimated production of rice at 89.88 million tonnes increased by 6.75 million tonnes or 8.1 per cent as compared to 2004-05. The production of wheat during 2005-06 estimated at71.54 million tonnes exceeds last year's production by 2.90 million tonnes or4.2 per cent. The production of coarse cereals estimated at 34.67 million tonnes is more than the last year's production by 1.21 million tonnes or by 3.6 per cent. The production of bajra was estimated at 8.31 million tonnes indicating a marginal increase of 4.8 per cent over the last year's production of 7.93 million tonnes. In case of maize the production was estimated at 14.89 million tones which is more than last year's production by 0.71 million tonnes or 5.0 per cent. The expected production of total pulses at 13.92 million tonnes shows a 6.0 percent increase over the last year's production of 13.13 million tonnes.

The estimated production of total oilseeds at 26.70 million tonnes in2005-06 is more than the last year's production by 2.34 million tonnes or by 9.6per cent. The production of cotton in 2005-06 was estimated at 18.93 million bales of 170 kg each which is more than the last year's production level by 2.50million bales indicating an increase of 15.2 per cent. Jute and Mesta production during 2005-06 was estimated at 10.83 million bales of 180 kg each which is more than last year's production of 10.27 million bales or by 5.5 per cent. Sugarcane production was estimated at 273.16 million tonnes, showing an increase of 36.07 million tonnes or 15.2 per cent over the preceding year's production of 237.09 million tonnes.

Annual growth of crop area, production and yield in respect of cereals, oilseeds and other crops is given below:

(per cent per annum)
2003-04				2004-05
Crop	Area	Production	Yield	Area	Production	Yield
Rice	3.4	23.3	19.2	-1.6	-6.1	-4.6
Wheat	5.6	9.7	4.0	-0.8	-4.9	-4.1
Coarse Cereals	14.1	44.9	27.0	-5.8	-11.6	-6.2
Total Cereals	7.1	21.0	13.0	-2.7	-6.5	-3.9
Total Pulses	14.5	33.1	16.3	-3.0	-10.7	-8.0
Foodgrains	8.4	22.6	13.0	-2.7	-7.1	-4.5
Nine Oilseeds	10.1	69.8	54.2	16.3	-2.5	-16.2
Cotton (lint)	-0.9	59.2	60.7	15.6	19.7	3.5
Sugarcane	-12.9	-18.6	-6.6	-7.0	1.4	9.0
Non Foodgrains	8.1	19.2	10.2	9.8	2.5	-6.6
All Principal Crops	8.3	21.0	11.7	0.7	-2.7	-3.5
Based on Index Numbers with Triennium ending 1993-94 = 100