In the wake of erratic rainfall coupled with fall in acreage, India's groundnut production is estimated to decline by 24 per cent in 2009-10. Area under groundnut crop has dipped in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu.
Due to uneven distribution of rains and substantial reduction in acreage in major groundnut growing regions, the output may reduce by 24 per cent to 32 lakh metric tonnes (MT) in 2009-10 as compare to 42 lakh MT in previous year since the groundnut yield is extremely sensitive to distribution of rains", says a report presented by Govindbhai Patel, managing partner, GG Patel & Nikhil Research Co. at a recently held meeting the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA).
However, Karnataka is the only state where the production of groundnut may rise. As per the report, the overall groundnut area has reduced by around 9 lakh hectares or 17 per cent to 44 lakh hectares in 2009-10 from 53 lakh hectares in the corresponding year. Andhra Pradesh has reported the highest reduction in groundnut acreage from 14.55 lakh hectares in 2008-09 to 7.50 lakh hectares this year, which shows a fall of 33 per cent. Andhra Pradesh is followed by Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, where the area under groundnut crop is reported to have declined by 28 per cent and 11 per cent respectively.
Due to erratic rainfall and reduction in groundnut acreage, the output in Gujarat may decrease by 34 per cent to 12.50 lakh MT as against 19 lakh MT in last year.
The crop in Andhra Pradesh likely to come down to 4.80 lakh MT from 7.5 lakh MT in previous year. "There may be increase in production in Karnataka by about 50,000 MT", says the report.
Gujarat accounts for one third of the Kharif area under groundnut in the country and it contributes around 40 per cent of the Kharif groundnut production.
The rain in the Saurashtra-Kutch region, major groundnut growing area of Gujarat, have been 28.7 per cent above the LPA (Long Period Average) but the temporal distribution is so bad that the yield has been adversely affected.