Soybean output likely to witness 11-year low

Scenario grim for this year's crop due to monsoon delay; farmers await even distribution of rains to start sowing

India’s soybean output is estimated to be the lowest in 11 years in crop year 2015-16 (July-June), after two years of drought, resulting in crop damage and a fall in yield.

Data compiled by the Soybean Processors’ Association of India (Sopa) showed output at 7.5 million tonnes this time, against 10.4 mt the previous year, a decline of 27 per cent.

There has been a delay in sowing, as the monsoon was delayed in some parts of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. These three states account for 80 per cent of the national output. Rainfall has also been inadequate in some areas of Maharashtra and MP.

Says D N Pathak, executive director, Sopa: “Farmers with irrigation facility have started sowing but rain-dependent ones are yet to start. Farmers might face problems in case the rain is not even in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.”

Soybean is a 90-day kharif crop. Sowing begins with the onset of monsoon in June, for harvesting in the second half of September.

A soya oil producer said: “This year, again, farmers faced huge supply shortage of breeder seeds. This is likely to impact the next sowing year more than the current year.”

India meets 55 per cent of its annual 23.5 million tonnes of vegetable oil demand through import, largely from Indonesia, Malaysia and Argentina.

Traders have urged the government to allow import of oilseeds duty-free, to make edible oilseed available for domestic crushers.

Atul Chaturvedi, chief executive officer of Adani Wilmar, producer of the Fortune brand of edible oil, said: “We have lost heavily in oilmeal exports at a time when its global demand is increasing. With growing demand from India as bird and animal feed, we will soon start importing oilmeal.”