Agri Picks Report April 25, 2024: Geojit Financial Services

commodities

Erratic weather in the crop year 2023-24 (Jul-Jun) has prompted the Department of Food and Public Distribution to relax the uniform specification of wheat for procurement in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh for the 2024-25 (Jul-Jun) rabi marketing season. On Tuesday, the Department of Food and Public Distribution wrote to Madhya Pradesh's food, civil supplies and consumer production department announcing the relaxation since the wheat crop was affected due to unseasonal rainfall/ hailstorm in the state. A similar letter was sent to Rajasthan's food, civil supplies and consumer affairs department on Monday. The government took this decision as the crop was affected due to lack of rain, early heat wave, and dust storms in the state. The limit of shrivelled and broken grains is relaxed to 20% in Rajasthan and 15% in Madhya Pradesh, without any cut in value. Earlier, this limit was 6% for both the states. The limit for loss of lustre is relaxed to 50% in Madhya Pradesh and 70% in Rajasthan. The department said the limit for damaged and slightly damaged grain should not be more than 6%. "Any deterioration of the quality of wheat stock procured under relaxed norms during storage shall be the sole responsibility of the state government," the letters said. India's oilseed production in 2023-24 is estimated at 36.6 mln tn, according to a research paper by India Brand Equity Foundation, a Trust established by the Department of Commerce under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Pointing out that India is the fourth-largest oilseeds producer in the world, the paper said the country has 20.8% of the total area under cultivation globally, accounting for 10% of global production. India produces groundnut, soybean, sunflower, sesamum, niger seed, mustard and safflower oilseeds. The major oilseed-producing states are Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana. Nearly 72% of the oilseeds area is restricted to rainfed farming done by small farmers, which leads to poor productivity. However, a breakthrough was realised in oilseed production by introducing new crop production technologies and various initiatives like Targeted Rice Fallow Area oilseeds, National Food Security Mission oilseeds, the paper said. The production of oilseeds in India has been growing for the last five years, the report said. In 2022-23, oilseed production was at 41.4 mln tn compared to 38.0 mln tn in 2021-22. The production of oilseeds during 2022-23 was higher by 7.3 mln tn than the average output of 34 mln tn over the past five years, the research paper said. From the year 2015-16 to 2022-23, the compound annual growth rate of oilseed production was 7.3%, it said. During Apr-Feb, India exported oilseed worth $1.30 bln. In 2022-23, oilseeds worth $1.33 bln were exported, which was the highest in the last ten years, the paper said.

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