Indian Government is planning to bring around 9 million hectares of land under Mustard Cultivation & raise Mustard production capacity to around 17 Million Tonnes (mt) by 2025-26 in India.
- For 2021-22, the government has set a target of covering an area of 7.58 million hectares with a production of 12.24 mt.
- The area under mustard cultivation will be increased by growing mustard in rice fallow areas, intercropping them with major crops & promoting mustard cultivation in non-traditional areas.
- To achieve the target, High-Quality Seeds will also be provided to farmers.
- It was stated by Shubha Thakur, Joint Secretary (Oilseeds), Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare during a webinar on ‘Mission Mustard 2025’ organised by the Solvent Extractors’ Association (SEA) of India.
Key Points
i.Target areas in 2021 – 368 districts in 13 states (same areas as in 2020). In 2020 the government has spent an amount of INR 160 crore on the mustard mission of SEA.
- The area under mustard cultivation stood at 7.3 million hectares in the 2021 Rabi Season, an increase of around 4 Lakh hectares compared to the Rabi season of 2020.
ii.Through Interventions like identification of Rice fallow areas & Intercropping, the area under mustard cultivation will be increased to an additional 4 lakh hectares.
- For this, Rice Fallow areas have been identified in states like Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Odisha, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh Pradesh.
- Intercropping intervention would be done with major crops in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
- The states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala are targeted for non-traditional areas.
Self-Sufficiency in Oil Seeds
India is one of the major oilseeds growers and importer of edible oils. India’s vegetable oil economy is the world’s fourth-largest after the USA, China & Brazil.
- It is aiming to become self-sufficient in the case of oilseeds as it imports around 70% of its edible oil needs.
- Rajasthan alone produces 40.82% of total mustard in India, It is the highest Mustard seed producing state in India followed by Haryana & Madhya Pradesh.
About Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
Union Minister – Narendra Singh Tomar (Morena, Madhya Pradesh)
Minister of State – Parshottam Rupala – Rajya Sabha (Gujarat), Kailash Choudhary – Barmer, Rajasthan
