Guar seed area to fall as shale gas producers' cut purchases

The area under guar seed production in India, the biggest producer of the tiny seed used to extract shale gas in fracturing, could drop 20 per cent in the coming sowing season due to falling global oil prices.

"Guar seed farmers are unhappy. They are likely to shift to pulses. We could see as high as 15-20 per cent reduction in guar seed area," said K N Rahiman, chief research officer at Ruchi Soya, a leading guar gum exporter.

Guar seed prices have fallen to the lowest level in five years after the US shale gas producers cut guar gum purchases due to dip in oil prices.

Guar seed prices have fallen 41 per cent in a year to Rs 3,100 per 100 kg, while the prices of pulses such as red gram have nearly doubled over the same period.

"At the current price guar is not profitable. Pulses, paddy are giving better returns," said Balbir Arniawali, a farmer from Sirsa district of northern state of Haryana.

Arniawali has not sold last year's harvest, hoping prices will recover, and has scaled back planting to 15 acres this year from 25 last year. Planting starts in June with the arrival of monsoon rains.

Guar gum is extracted from the seeds and used to thicken the slurry of water, sand and chemicals pumped into wells during the hydraulic fracturing, and tap oil and gas.

India, which produces 80 per cent of the world's guar gum, saw exports from April to February fall 48 per cent to 329,070 tonnes from a year ago.

The US, whose shale gas surge has transformed it from the world's leading gas importer to a budding exporter, is the biggest importer of Indian guar gum.

More than half of India's guar gum processing plants are now closed and nearly half of the guar gum from last year's crop remains unsold, said a gum exporter based in Bikaner in north-western state of Rajasthan, the country's biggest producer.