Higher availability of ground water in areas of Saurashtra and North Gujarat thanks to prolonged monsoon this year promises to give the state a bumper groundnut crop, says the President of Gujarat State Edible Oils and Oil Seed Association, Samir Shah.
A couple of other factors contributing to bumper crops of sesame (til) and groundnut are favorable weather conditions and increased areas of sowing.
Groundnut
Groundnut sowing area in Gujarat has increased to around 60,000 hectare, which is over 26%. As per data by the state's agriculture department, this is impressively higher as compared to last three year's average area of 46,800 hectare.
Traders of groundnut in Gujarat are anticipating a production of about 2 lakh tonnes, which is higher than the average output that usually lies in the range of 1 lakh to 1.5 lakh tonnes.
According to the Joint Director of State Agriculture Department, CM Patel, quality of harvest of summer groundnut continues to be good, as incidences of pests and diseases become fewer in hot weather.
Sesame (til)
Area under sesame has increased three folds from last three year's average of 31,000 hectare to 97,800 hectares this season. This is a whopping 315% higher.
Usually, production of sesame during summer stays around 11,000 tonnes, but now with such a staggering increase in area of sowing and good availability of water, sesame traders are anticipating over 35,000 MT of sesame this season.
Patel says that both oilseed crops - groundnut and sesame - remain unaffected by disease or damage of any kind. Harvesting of both the crops will get over by the end of May.
Area of cereal crops for the summer have also increased to 3.48 lakh hectares from the last three years' average of 3.02 lakh hectares. Similarly, area of pulses has increased to 76,600 hectares from 40,800 hectares in the state.
