India to harvest record wheat and rapeseed crop in 2023

India’s 2023 wheat production is likely to rise 4.1% to a record 112.2 million tonnes, the government said on Tuesday, as higher prices prompted farmers to expand crop-growing areas with high-yielding varieties and the weather remained favourable. Higher wheat output could help the world’s second-biggest producer of the grain in replenishing depleted inventories and bringing down prices from record levels. India, also the world’s second-biggest consumer of wheat, banned exports in May 2022 after a sharp, sudden rise in temperatures clipped output, even as exports picked up to meet the global shortfall triggered by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. India’s wheat output fell to 107.74 million tonnes in 2022 from 109.59 million tonnes a year earlier, data released by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare showed. The country grows only one wheat crop in a year, with planting in October and November, and harvesting from March. Despite the expected rise in output, India is ...