SEA lowers its rapeseed-mustard crop projections to 115.8 lakh tonnes

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The Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) has lowered its production estimate of rapeseed-mustard to 115.8 lakh tonnes (lt) from 120.9 lt.

SEA had commissioned RMSI Cropalytics to conduct all-India rapeseed-mustard crop survey for the season 2023-24.

Based on the last round of survey conducted during May, the rapeseed-mustard crop estimate has been revised downwards to 115.8 lt from the previous estimate of 120.9 lt in March.

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BV Mehta, Executive Director of SEA, said States such as Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh faced adverse impacts of El Nino weather conditions in the later part of the season. This included severe heatwave and drastic reduction in soil moisture during the maturity stage, leading to reduction in yield.

Unchanged in 4 States

May’s survey estimated the crop production at 45.34 lt (as against 46.13 lt in March’s survey) in Rajasthan. This was followed by Uttar Pradesh at 17.88 lt (20.03 lt), Madhya Pradesh at 16.03 lt (17.58 lt), and Haryana at 11.68 lt (12.26 lt).

However, there was no change in the estimate in states such as West Bengal at 7.09 lt, Gujarat at 4.57 lt, Assam at 2.06 lt, and Chhattisgarh at 1.11 lt.

The above eight States production estimate was revised lower to 105.78 lt in the last round of survey in May from 110.86 lt in March’s round of survey.

There was no change in the estimate in the remaining States of the country. All the other remaining States’ production was estimated at around 10 lt.

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Mehta said the production of rapeseed-mustard is expected to reach 115.8 lt in 2023-24 from 111.80 lt in 2022-23, an increase of 3.5 per cent.

Acreage

Referring to the remote sensing based estimate, he said rapeseed-mustard seed acreage has increased from 95.8 lakh hectares (lh) in 2022-23 to 100.6 lh in 2023-24, a growth of 5 per cent. This included 38 lh in Rajasthan, followed by 17.76 lh in Uttar Pradesh, 13.98 lh in Madhya Pradesh, and 7.59 lh in Haryana.

He said the yield of rapeseed-mustard in the current season will be 1151 kg per hectare against 1168 kg per hectare in 2022-23.

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