MUMBAI (Commoditiescontrol) - Around 95 percent of soybean sowing has been completed in the country and crop is in good shape excluding Madhya Pradesh as recent flood like situation has raised concern about fields having poor surface drainage, according to The Soybean Processors Association of India (SOPA).
SOPA has conducted extensive survey in 3 major soybean growing states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan to assess sowing, conditions of germination, shift in area under soybean etc.
Area in Madhya Pradesh is likely to drift lower by 8 percent over last year.
D.N Pathak, Executive Director, SOPA said "Around 5 to 30 percent of soybean area in a number of districts of Madhya Pradesh has been converted to Urad, Maize, Red Gram, sorghum and paddy, due to relatively poor productivity of soybean during previous 3 years for various reasons."
The districts where decrease has been noticed are Betul, Hoshangabad, Guna, Harda, Khandwa, Khargone, Badwani, Burhanpur, Ashoknagar, Raisen, Vidisha, Bhopal, Rajgarh, Narsinghpur, Sagar and Damoh, said Pathak.
However the trade body has raised acreage estimate by 6 percent in Maharashtra versus last year. The report further revealed that soybean area is likely to decrease by 10% to 20% and converted to Urad, Moong and Maize in Wardha, Nagpur and Chandrapur and some parts of Nanded districts.
In Akola, Buldhana, Yeotmal, Washim, Amravati and Hingoli districts, area under soybean is likely to increase by 10% to 20% as against previous year and converted from cotton to soybean, due to timely sowing and high cost of cultivation and less market price of cotton.
In the meanwhile it has estimated 15-20 percent reduction in area in Rajasthan. The farmers in the state is likely to shift towards Urad and Maize due to better remuneration.
SOPA noted although no field survey was conducted in other soybean growing states, information has been gathered through government and trade sources. In A.P., Karnataka, Gujarat and Rest of India, it has been reported that area under soybean may increase by about 10% over last year. JS-335 remains the most popular soybean variety in these states. The major shift to soybean is from cotton.
According to government fourth advance estimate the country has produced 89.19 lakh tonnes of soybean in 2015-16 versus 103.74 lakh tonnes in 2014-15.
(By Commoditiescontrol Bureau; +91-22-40015533)