Rajasthan govt plans to boost mustard output

The Rajasthan government is mulling over several proposals to increase the production of mustard and help increase farmers' profitability.

Plans are afoot to declare Rajasthan as a "mustard state", state's Agriculture Minister Prabhulal Saini said.

"We are the top producer of mustard in the country, and we plan to offer several opportunities to the farmers to sell their produce so that farmers grow more mustard," the minister said at a national workshop on raising rapeseed/mustard output.

"Bio-fuel plants are being set up and farmers are being told to encourage bee farming along with mustard," Saini said.

In some mustard growing areas of the state, farmers have been able augment their income through bee farming, that can be carried out alongside sowing and harvesting, he said.

Rajasthan, with around 40 per cent share in the country's mustard output, is the country's largest producer of the oilseed.

According to trade estimates, the state is likely to produce around 2.5-2.8 million tonnes mustard "" around 10-15 per cent lower than last year due to scanty rainfall.

Mustard, a winter crop, requires a temperate climate to prosper. It is sown during October-November and harvested in February-March.

Niranjan Lal Data, president, Rajasthan Oil Industries Association, said the country was likely to produce around 5 million tonnes of mustard in 2007-08 if the weather condition remains favourable.

The industry body is also mulling ways to augment output and popularise use of mustard oil. With skyrocketing prices of petroleum products and increased use of edible oils as fuel alternatives, the industry expects prices of edibles to also shoot up.

D P Khandeliya, a mustard miller, said the day is not far off when edible oil prices, now at Rs 40-60 a kg, would touch Rs 100.