Soybean acreage likely to decrease due to increase in sowing of maize and pulses in central India
12-Jul-2024 12:50 PM
Indore. Production area of soybean, a major oilseed crop of Kharif season, is likely to decline this time because farmers in important producing states are giving special priority to the cultivation of maize and pulses.
Actually, the price of soybean is running below the minimum support price, due to which soybean sowing may decrease in both the top producing states - Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. However, there is no indication of this in the initial trend,
while due to good monsoon rains, soybean sowing in central India has reached its final stage. According to the Executive Director of Indore-based organization - Soybean Processors Association of (SOPA), farmers got good income from maize cultivation, while the price of tuvar-urad remains at a very high level. On the other hand,
the price of soybean is also running below the support price. In Madhya Pradesh, farmers are giving priority to maize cultivation instead of soybean and in Maharashtra to pulses and cotton cultivation. SOPA has started surveying the sowing area and the area data is expected to come out in the next two weeks.
According to the data of the Union Agriculture Ministry, during the current Kharif season, as compared to last year, till last week, the production area of soybean at the national level has more than doubled from 28.86 lakh hectares to close to 60.63 lakh tonnes.
In the Kharif season of the year 2023, the total area of soybean reached 124.11 lakh hectares. In the most prominent producing state - Madhya Pradesh, the model price (the price at which the highest trading takes place) of soybean on July 11 was recorded at Rs 3970-4500 per quintal (in loose),
which was below the minimum support price of Rs 4600 per quintal. The central government has now increased the support price of soybean by 6.3 percent to Rs 4892 per quintal for the 2024-25 season so that farmers can get incentives to increase its acreage and production.