Kharif Strategy 2021 will bring an additional 6.37 lakh hectare area under oilseeds
The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has adopted a multi-pronged strategy to achieve self-sufficiency in the production of oilseeds. Under the strategy, the Government of India has approved an ambitious plan for the free distribution of high yielding varieties of seeds to the farmers for the Kharif season 2021 in the form of mini-kits. The special Kharif programme will bring an additional 6.37 lakh hectare area under oilseeds and is likely to produce 120.26 lakh quintals of oilseeds and edible oil amounting to 24.36 lakh quintals.
Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar emphasised enhancing the productivity of oilseeds by increasing the availability of high yielding varieties of seeds for the farmers to use on their fields. Accordingly, the special Kharif plan was discussed in detail with the state governments in a webinar in April 2021 and also in the KharifConference on April 30, 2021.
Through these consultations, both area and productivity enhancement has been formulated for soybean and groundnut with a focus on high yielding varieties of seeds to be provided free of cost under the National Food Security Mission (Oil Seeds and Oil Palm) Mission as under;
- Distribution of soybean seeds for intercropping for 41 districts in the six states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, Telangana and Chhattisgarh costing Rs76.03 crore and covering 1,47,500 hectare.
- Distribution of soybean seeds for high potential districts in 73 districts of the eight states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana, Karnataka, UP, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat costing Rs 104 crore and 3,90,000 hectare.
- Distribution of mini kits in 90 districts of the nine states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Telangana Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, UP and Bihar costing Rs 40 crore. The area to be covered will be 1,006,636 ha and the number of mini-kits will be 8,16,435.
- The soybean seeds to be distributed will be having a yield of not less than 20 quintal/hectare. The distribution of seeds for intercropping and high potential districts will be through the state seed agencies and the seeds for the mini-kits will be through the Central seed producing agencies.
- Distribution of 74,000 groundnut seed mini kits in the seven states of Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu covering costing Rs 13.03 crore for seeds not less than 22 quintal/hectare.
