But for a good groundnut crop in Gujarat and a normal soyabean crop in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, the entire kharif oilseeds estimates would have been grim leading to an increased reliance on imports.

The revised production estimates of oilseeds during the kharif season stands at 121.37 lakh tonne, a nearly 12 lakh tonne increase over last year’s 109.44 lakh tonne, Vordi said.

However, the area under kharif oilseeds cultivation has fallen to 146.57 lakh hectares as against 158.40 lakh hectares in the same period last year, the revised estimates show.

Though, the area under groundnut cultivation is slightly less at 55.79 lakh hectares, the revised production estimates are higher by 12 lakh tonne at 52.05 lakh tonne.

“Due to sufficient rainfall in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in the second week of October, late sown groundnut standing crop has improved,” G Chandra, deputy director of the institute said.

The revised estimates of soyabean also point to a higher crop at 52.90 lakh tonne, which is 2.5 lakh tonne higher than the last year. In case of soyabean also, sufficient rainfall in the second week of October resulted to a higher production of soyabean for late varieties, he said.

There has been a 50,000 tonne increase in production of sesame at 6.12 lakh tonne, Vordi said.

However, there has been a 50,000 tonne decrease in production of sunflower at 2.13 lakh tonne, due to a shift in cultivation to other crops by farmers in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Punjab. The area under cultivation too decreased by 1.50 lakh hectares to 3.82 lakh hectares.

Production of niger in 2001-02 kharif season has declined by 0.25 lakh tonne at 1.26 lakh tonne, while castor production is estimated at 5.66 lakh tonne as against 8.91 lakh tonne in 2000-01, Vordi added.