Farmers in Uttar Pradesh have shifted to oilseeds cultivation in a big way in the current rabi season at the expense of wheat cultivation, with the area under mustard/rapeseed cultivation showing an increase of 125% over last year’s area while wheat sowing has shown a dip of around 10%.
As per agriculture department data available till December 27, farmers have sown mustard on 9.70 lakh hectares exceeding the target of 7.80 lakh hectares set by the state government for this year, an increase of almost 125%. As compared to last year’s area under mustard cultivation was 7.01 lakh hectares, the increase is nearly 38%.
On the other hand, wheat sowing in the current season has dropped by almost 10% to 8.88 lakh hectares as against the target of 9.90 lakh hectares. Last year, the wheat crop had been sown on 98.52 lakh hectares.
According to an official of the state agriculture department, one of the main reasons for farmers switching to oilseeds from wheat cultivation this year is the high prices of the crop as also the recent rise in oilseed oil prices.
“Farmers have shifted to mustard majorly this year in the hope of getting a better price. While the government has kept the MSP for mustard at Rs 5,050 per quintal for the current year, the market prices are much higher,” he said, adding that higher production of the crop will also go a long way in helping the country to cut its edible oil imports.
“The average demand for mustard in Uttar Pradesh is around 40 lakh metric tonnes. Last year, mustard was grown on 7.01 lakh hectares of land in the state and the total production was 10.08 lakh metric tonnes. With the production of mustard expected to be much more this year in Uttar Pradesh, we are hopeful of achieving a production of around 14 lakh metric tonnes. Though this would be higher than previous, it would still leave a gap of around 25 lakh metric tonnes of mustard in the state,” he said.
At present, Uttar Pradesh ranks third in mustard production, after Rajasthan and Haryana.
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