Farmers Encouraged to Plant More Mustard Crop due to Better Price Levels

Rabi crop acreage in the country is heading for a record high with wheat, gram and mustard already surpassing the best acreage, recorded in the past.

According to data released by the Agriculture Ministry on Friday, Rabi crops have so far been planted over nearly 652 lakh hectares (lha), nearly two per cent more than around 642 lha covered in the corresponding week last year. Mustard sowing goes pretty well as of now.

Farmers had received handsome profits from this crop as mustard prices had registered significant appreciation in 2020. As a result the motivation to plant more of mustard crop increased amongst the Indian growers.

Mustard prices had appreciated by more than 50 percent by year end when compared with prices prevailing during the harvest season i.e. between March/April 2020.

The Food Standards and Safety Authority of India’s (FSSAI) decision, not to allow blending of other oils in mustard oil in October was another driving factor, contributing for an increase in mustard acreage.

The decision came around the time when farmers were to gearing up for sowing. The latest Government data shows that the planted area in Mustard or RM seed has so far reached 73.25 Lakh hectares as against 68.64 Lakh hectares during last year’s corresponding period.

Therefore year on year, the planted area of mustard has increased by 6.7 percent approximately. The government aims to take the area under mustard to around 80 lakh hectares this year, under the Oilseeds Mission program. The mustard crop continues providing better prices to farmers than the MSP till now.