WORLD SCENARIO

China is the largest producer of the groundnut in the world (more than 40 per cent) followed by India (20 per cent). Though, India is the largest cultivator of groundnut crop, low unimpressive yields have brought it to second place in terms of output. On the other hand, the US and Egypt occupy the first two places in terms of yield while India stands much below the world’s average (1.45 tonnes per hectare), in the fifth place from below in a list of 20 major groundnut cultivating countries. Yields have been more or less constant in the recent years and as a result, production levels have been changing in tune with area cultivated.

Table 1: Production trends

 Indian scenario

India has remained as the second largest producer of groundnut despite containing the largest area under cultivation due low yield. In addition, area under cultivation has been declining steadily while the yield levels have almost stagnated. Consequently, groundnut production has slowed down considerably during the past decade, more specifically after 2000. However, there was sudden jump in yield during 2003-04 on account of expansion in area under irrigation.