Cultivation of oilseeds has been on the rise across Uttar Pradesh and the area of mustard cultivation has grown by 35 per cent this year as compared to last year.
As per the latest Agriculture department data, farmers have grown mustard on 9.46 lakh hectares exceeding the target of 7.80 lakh hectares set by the Yogi Adityanath government for this year across the state. Besides, in Lucknow alone, mustard has been grown on 15,000 hectares this year while it was cultivated on around 9,000 hectares last year.
“The reason for farmers switching to oilseed cultivation is believed as much to be the rise in oil prices as the campaign run by the Agriculture department to encourage mustard cultivation across the state. So, it will not be an exaggeration to say that a Yellow Revolution has begun in Uttar Pradesh,” said a government spokesman on Thursday.
“In fact, the Agriculture department officials went from village to village encouraging farmers to opt for mustard cultivation in order to achieve the target of its cultivation on 7.80 lakh hectares. Farmers were also coached on the importance of taking timely care of crops as well as ways and means to achieve better yield. As a result, more than 20 lakh farmers across the state took to mustard cultivation in the recent past,” the official further said.
The Agriculture department officials claimed that there will be a bumper mustard production this year in Uttar Pradesh after a gap of several years and soon the state will emerge as a major producer of the crop within the country.
Last year, mustard was grown on seven lakh hectares of land in the state and the total production was 10.07 lakh metric tons. The production of mustard will be much more this year in Uttar Pradesh than last year because of its cultivation on a much larger piece of land.
At present, Uttar Pradesh ranks second after Madhya Pradesh in the production of oilseeds in the country, accounting for 16 per cent of the total production. Madhya Pradesh, which is the top producer of oilseeds, accounts for the highest 24 per cent while Maharashtra comes third with 14 per cent. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan contribute 10 per cent, seven percent and six per cent respectively of the total oilseed production in India. Similarly, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Orissa and Jharkhand collectively account for 23 per cent of the total oilseeds production in the country.
Oilseeds are grown both as Rabi and Kharif crops and about 64 per cent of oilseeds are produced as Rabi, 30 per cent as Kharif and six percent as Zaid crops.
As per data of the Directorate of Mustard Research, Uttar Pradesh topped in mustard production 25 years ago, but later the area of cultivation of mustard shrank due to increase in wheat farming with introduction of its new varieties.
In 1981-82, mustard was grown on 22.76 lakh hectares in UP, constituting 50 per cent of the area under mustard cultivation in India but the area started shrinking and production started declining in later years.
There were other reasons also for the decline in mustard production. One of them was that the minimum support price (MSP) of mustard was not increased in the same manner as of wheat.
However, the present Union government paid attention to this issue with the aim to increase farmer’s income and increased the MSP of mustard too. The government has kept the MSP for mustard at Rs 5,050. In view of this, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath launched a campaign to promote oilseed cultivation across Uttar Pradesh to benefit farmers.