The Solvent Extractors’ Association, also known as SEA has started a Mustard Mission together with the Solidaridad with the aim to boost India’s rapeseed production to 200 lakh tons by the year 2025.
Chairman, SEA Oilseed Development Council, Haresh Vyas said that this can be achieved by improving the productivity by providing better inputs as well as technology to farmers & encouraging the crop diversification from water-intensive surplus rice and wheat to mustard.
For this, the association has created 100 model farms in India’s top producing state Rajasthan, directly involving 2,500 growers in Bundi and Kota districts. The first year experience showed that the output has increased by about 30 percent over the traditional methods and it has a potential to increase by over 60 percent. The SEA will increase the model farms to 1,000 in the next five years.
Chairman of SEA Rape Mustard Promotion Council, Vijay Data said the Mission will also harmonize government efforts to improve the income of farmers in the country.
Dr. Suresh Motwani, Solidaridad Network Asia’s General Manager said that “We will continue to help the government by making available the infrastructure for best farm practices as well as market linkage to Indian growers to improve their incomes by raising the productivity."
The association has been regularly conducting crop surveys for important oilseeds including rapeseed to support agriculture value chain in India to take informed decisions.
The SEA, in its constant attempt to improve the precision of the survey, has roped in Star Agri and NCML this year to utilize remote sensing technology in mapping the area & checking the crop health at every stage of the crop with the use of satellite technology.
Based on the remote sensing data & market intelligence, the Solvent Extractors’ Association forecasts the bumper rapeseed crop in 2019-20 at 77.80 lakh tons.
