The Economic Survey has however said that the south west monsoon was the most deficient since 1972, by 23 per cent compared to the long period average (LPA), the overall agricultural GDP is estimated to be falled by only 0.2 per cent in 2009-10 (advance estimates) as against the previous year's growth rate of 1.6 per cent.

In the agricultural season 2009-10, the impact of the delayed and subnormal monsoon is reflected in the production and acreage data for kharif crops. As per the first advance estimates, covering only kharif crop, production of foodgrains is estimated at 98.83 million tonnes in 2009-10 as well as against the fourth advance estimates of 117.70 million tonnes of kharif crop in 2008-09 and a target of 125.15 million tonnes for 2009-10. Overall production of kharif cereals in 2009-10 has shown a decline of 18.51 million tonnes over 2008-09 while there has been a decline of 15 per cent in the production of rice over the 2008-09 level, and 17 per cent in comparison with the target for 2009-10, the decline in kharif coarse cereals in 2009-10 was 20 per cent in comparison to 2008-09 and the shortfall with respect to the target for kharif 2009-10 is nearly 10 million tonnes. The total production of kharif pulses , estimated at 4.42 million tonnes in 2009-10, is 8 per cent lower than the production during 2008-09 and 32 per cent lower than the targeted production for 2009-10. Similarly, total kharif production of 9 oilseeds in 2009-10 is about 15 per cent lower than in 2008-09.

Sugarcane production in 2009-10, estimated at 249.48 million tonnes , is 9 percent lower than the previous year and 27 per cent lower than the targeted production of 2009-10.

Cotton production in 2009-10 is estimated at 236.57 lakh bales (of 170 kg each) which is higher than the fourth advance estimates of 231.56 lakh bales in 2008-09 by 2.2 per cent. However, this is lower than the target for 2009-10 by 9 per cent.

The acreage under kharif cultivation in 2009-10 season also saw a decline of nearly 6.5 per cent i.e. 46.18 lakh ha in the area covered under foodgrains. Almost the entire decline in this acerage was confined to kharif rice crop. While the decline in kharif acreage under pulses was 5.63 per cent, the area under the 9 oil seeds declined by 5.14 lakh ha. However, the Economic Survey 2009-10 feels that some of these declines in acreage may have been made up by the increased acreage in the rabi season. As per available estimates, wheat, pulses and groundnut have seen an increase in acreage as compared to last year.