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Acreage of oil seed crops increases by 29 percent

“This is the best indication we have received this year. At least people are adopting less water consuming crops over more water consuming crops,” said a senior officer of the Agriculture Ministry here on Saturday. Secondly, India is not self-reliant on edible oil and mostly has to depend upon import, the officer said.

Acreage of oil seed crops increases by 29 percent

representational image (iStock photo)

India’s oilseed crop acreage increased by almost 29 % in 2021-22, up from 64.73 lakh hectares to 83.65 lakh hectares, claimed the data released by the Union Agriculture Ministry recently.

“This is the best indication we have received this year. At least people are adopting less water consuming crops over more water consuming crops,” said a senior officer of the Agriculture Ministry here on Saturday. Secondly, India is not self-reliant on edible oil and mostly has to depend upon import, the officer said.

“This way we would not only save water but also save our foreign exchange by cutting import of edible oil,” he added. An increase of 18.92 lakh hectares is a very good indication, he said. Overall, as per the second advance estimate, a record foodgrain production of 316.06 tonnes is estimated for 2021-22 crop year.

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This year the total area sown has also increased from 413.11 lakh hectares to 438.51 lakh hectares, the Agriculture Ministry said. After edible oil, the government is now stressing on increasing the acreage areas of coarse-cum-Nutri Cereals and increasing its export since it is much in demand worldwide.

Presently the Agriculture and Allied Sector is about 19% of the total exports in the country, the government said. The Ministry has also offered a series of sops to Start-ups and Food Producers Organizations (FPOs) for setting up food processing units. The Ministry has invited Start-ups and FPOs to submit their proposals to get equity grants, management costs and other available support measures.

The Ministry further said that it is also stressing on increasing the acreage area of coarse-cum-nutri cereals. Nutri cereals are much in demand world over after Covid-19 pandemic and the government is promoting coarse cereals and educating them about the health and nutritional aspects of millets. “We are hopeful that if we manage to convince them on the economics of coarse cereals crop, the farmers would certainly go for it,” the Ministry said.

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