The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare has adopted a multi-pronged strategy in order to achieve self-sufficiency in the production of oilseeds.
Under the strategy, the Centre has approved an ambitious plan for free distribution of high yielding varieties of seeds to farmers during the Kharif season in form of mini-kits.
The special Kharif programme will bring an additional 6.37 lakh hectare area under oilseeds and is expected to produce 120.26 lakh quintals of oilseeds & edible oil amounting to 24.36 lakh tonnes.
In order to become Aatmanirbhar in oilseeds, Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Agriculture Minister emphasised on improving the productivity of oilseeds by increasing the availability of high yielding varieties of seeds for growers to use in their fields.
It must be noted that the special Kharif plan was discussed with the State Governments in a webinar last month and also in the Kharif Conference held on 30th April 2021.
Through these discussions, both area and productivity enhancement has been formulated for groundnut and soybean with special 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;
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Distribution of mini kits in 90 districts of nine states - Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, UP, Bihar, Karnataka and Telangana costing Rs 40 crore. The area to be covered will be 1,006,636 ha & the number of mini-kits will be 8,16,435.
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Distribution of soybean seeds for high potential 73 districts of eight states that includes Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, UP, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Telangana and Karnataka, costing Rs 104 crore and 3,90,000 ha.
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Distribution of soybean seeds for intercropping for 41 districts in six states that includes Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Telangana costing Rs76.03 crore & covering 1,47,500 ha.
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Distribution of 74,000 Groundnut seed mini kits in seven states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, AP, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh covering costing Rs 13.03 crore for seeds not less than 22 Qtl/ha.
Source - PIB
