Indore: Soybean crop production likely to be lower in division

Soybean crop in Madhya Pradesh has been badly affected due to yellow mosaic virus, stem fly, anthracnose and other pests and disease resulting in low yield and small seed size. Seeds were damaged due to rains during harvesting. The soybean cultivation in the state is 12% more over last year. But the production is likely tobe only 4% more than last year. In Indore Division this is likely to be lesser.

These are the finding of an extensive field survey of soybean crop undertaken the States of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan by two teams of Soyabean Processors Association (SOPA) from 1st to 7th October. The teams travelled more than 4000 kilometres and interacted with a number of farmers on the field, mandi officials, trade and industry people and government officials. Based on the survey, SOPA released the second advance estimates of soybean crop of Kharif 2020 on Saturday.

DN Pathak, Executive Director of SOPA said, "If we talk about MP particularly, total area under soybean cultivation in the State for the year 2020 is 58.540 lakh hectares, which is
higher by about 12.68% over last year. Estimated total production of soybean in the State for the year 2020 is 41.772 lakh tonnes, which is higher by 4.15% as compared to previous year's production of 40.107 lakh tonnes. The crops condition in Khandwa, Khargone, Badwani, Dhar,
Ratlam and Mandsaur are better than other districts of the State.
As per the survey, the soybean crop in Maharashtra and other states is normal to good. Government’s estimate of area of sowing done in Maharashtra is 43.441 lakh hectares. SOPA says that we have reduced this by 7% to 40.397 lakh hectares to account for intercropping.

As per SOPA, total area under soybean cultivation for the year 2020 is 118.383 lakh hectares, which is higher by about 10% over last year. The official figure about the area under cultivation given by Government is 121.427 lakh hectares.

Estimated total production of soybean crop for all India for the year 2020 is 104.552 Lakh tons, which is higher by 12.346% as compared to previous year's production of 93 lakh tonnes.