Soya acreage dips 8.9 %

Soyabean acreage in the country has come down around 8.9 per cent, from 76.20 lakh hectares during kharif 2005 to 69.39 lakh hecatres this year, according to a report released by the Soyabean Oil Producers Association of India (SOPA).

The report, however, gave no reasons for the decline in the area under soybean cultivation.

In Madhya Pradesh, soyabean was sown in 41.746 lakh hectares of land. Sowing was done after the rainfall in the first week of July covering 73 per cent of the area and by the second week of July, 91 per cent of the sowing area was covered, the SOPA newsletter said.

The report said the crop is in good condition and free from serious damages caused by blue-beetle.

The area under soybean has not been used for the cultivation of any other kharif crop, the newsletter added.

In Maharashtra, the area under soybean cultivation is 20.083 lakh hectares. With Amravati, Pune, Aurangabad and Kolhapur areas recording excess rains, 51 per cent of the area was sowed by 1st week of July and by the end of 2nd week of July, 84 per cent of the area was sowed.

The crop condition was reported to be good with some moisture stress in the Latur division due to deficient rains.In Rajasthan, the rains arrived late but improved by the second week of July.

About 4.482 lakh hectares of land, amounting to 60 per cent of the total area, was sown by the end of second week of July. Sowing is under progress in the remaining areas and the sown crop has shown good germination, the newsletter said.

In Karnataka, the acreage has gone-up to 1.440 lakh hectares, against last year's 1.205 lakh hectares. The sown area in Andhra Pradesh was 0.56 hectares, Chhatisgarh 0.78 hectares, and the rest of India including Uttar Pradesh, was 0.30 lakh hectares. The crop condition is fairly good on all these areas, the newsletter said.