Area under soyabean production increases in MP

With the completion of 98 per cent of sowing of soyabean, the state of Madhya Pradesh has recorded an increase in acreage.

This year an area of 44.554 lakh hectares have been sown against 41.922 lakh hectares in the previous year. However the sowing was expected to be 45.501 lakh hectares in the state.

Indore-based Soyabean Processors Association of India (SOPA) conducted an assessment during the first week of August and said acreage has been increased by more than four lakh hectares.

"After the initial good germination, the crop condition has also improved due to good spell of rains. The soybean crop is in good vegetative stage barring some areas namely Hoshangabad, Sehore, Bhopal and Harda districts, where weed infestation was observed due to continuous rains," Sopa in its second crop report said.

"The soya growers of Madhya Pradesh have not replaced the area under soyabean production with any other kharif crop," it added.

"Till date 98 per cent sowing has been completed against the target area of 45.501 lakh hectares expected by the department of agriculture," said Sopa. While a senior agriculture department official also confirmed the report and said, "We are expecting a good crop yield this year."

Last year the yield stood at 796 kg per hectare and total production stood at 33.351 lakh tones.

In Maharashtra, the area under soyabean cultivation is 23.072 lakh hectares. 97 per cent of the production area has been covered by the end of July.

In some areas like Kolhapur and Sangli, excess rains may affect the soybean crop. Six districts observed excess rainfall, it was normal in 4 districts and deficient in one district. While no district observed scanty rainfall.

Andhra Pradesh has also reported 1.065 lakh hectares sowing area whereas Karnataka has shown a positive trend of 1.544 lakh hectares as against 1.418 lakh hectares sown last year. Chhattisgarh reported 0.824 hectares and the rest of India including Uttar Pradesh had covered an area of 0.30 lakh hectares. The crop condition is fairly good in all these areas.

Thus the total acreage of soybean including all the states of India comes to 77.162 lakh hectares by the July end as against 76.720 lakh hectares during 2005-06.