Seed Shortage To Affect Groundnut Sowing

Despite a good monsoon, shortage of seeds could affect the sowing of groundnuts _ the country's main oilseed crop, traders said. The shortage is on account of severe droughts which had affected Gujarat for the past three years leading to a fall in production.

Gujarat produced about 1.2 million tonne in 2000-01 (November-October), down from the normal output of three million tonne.

An official in Adani Exports Ltd said, "To get a crop size of one million tonne we need at least 100,000 tonne seeds, but not even half the required quantity is available for sowing."

"Though farmers have seeds from last year's crop but the quality is very poor," another trader said.

 

Agricultural commissioner CR Hazra told Business Standard, "there are shortage of certified seeds, but we have asked the states to procure it from the farmers and clear it and supply it as truly labelled seeds. However, the seeds may not be that good."

Annual output in India, the second-largest single producer of groundnut after China, has dropped to less then four million tonne from a normal crop of around 5.5 million tonne.

This year, the output of Gujarat's summer crop, which provides a large chunk of seeds for the winter crop, has been lower at around 25,000 tonne against the average crop of 300,000 tonne, traders said.

Sowing for the summer crop starts in March and the harvesting is done in May. Winter crops sowing has just begun and the crop arrivals in markets will start in October.

"Imports of seeds is the only solution," they said adding that India would have to import high-quality seeds from the US and Argentina.

"Government would have to take immediate steps to import seeds because the sowing season for winter crops lasts only until July," traders added.

They said the start of sowing had been slow despite pre-monsoon showers lashing the Saurashtra region. "The soil is ready since it has the required moisture after two spells of rainfall," an edible oil trader said. India's four-month southwest monsoon began a week earlier this year on May 23.

"Farmers are in bad shape after three years of drought, they don't have the resources to go ahead with full-scale sowing," they added.

Dealers said the production of winter groundnut in Gujarat is not expected to rise even with normal rainfall because the area under sowing will be lower.