Oilseed acreage up 33% due to progressive monsoon

Sowing area under oilseed crops has increased by about 33 per cent in current kharif season due to good progress of monsoon. The rise is led by soybean acreage followed by groundnut and sesame seed across India.

Timely advent of monsoon followed by good progress pushed up sowing across the nation. Moreover, farmers received good returns in groundnut, sesame and soybean during the year due to lower production which also encouraged farmers of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan to shift more towards oilseed crops.

According to government data, as on July 23, total sowing area of oilseeds stood at 14.30 million hectares as against 10.78 million hectares in the year ago period. Oilseeds sowing increased by 2.70 million hectares or 33 per cent as compared to 2014 kharif season. The biggest jump was seen in soybean which covered 10.48 million hectares against last year's 7.77 million hectares.

The data suggested that area of groundnut and sesame seed also rose considerably in current kharif season. According to the data, groundnut sowing has gained 460,000 hectares to 2.71 million this year from 2.25 million hectares. Similarly sesame seed covered 924,000 hectares which was last year stood at 559,000 hectares in last year same period.

"Area of oilseeds in current kharif season has been high. This is because of timely progress of monsoon, whereas last year, monsoon progress was not so good, which affected the sowing," said B V Mehta, executive director of Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA).

However, Mehta added that a final picture of sowing would be clear after August 15. Total sowing of oilseeds during entire kharif 2014 stood at 17.48 million hectares.

Meanwhile, D N Pathak, executive director of the Soybean Processors Association of India (SOPA) stated that prices of oilseeds has been one of the major factors to boost in sowing this year. "Farmers received good return so far which increased the sowing area in Rajasthan and Maharashtra in soybean," he added.

For instance, during the season (2014-15) groundnut prices mostly traded between Rs 5,500-6,500 per quintal. In May this year too, farmers received price levels of Rs 4,000-4,300 per 100 kg.