New Delhi, April 3 (Inditop.com) The central government has asked the states to increase the production of oilseeds as the requirement of the crop in the country is continuously increasing.
“The domestic production of oilseeds, despite various efforts, is unable to keep pace with the demand,” said a letter sent by the agriculture ministry to the state governments last month asking them to forward the annual action plan for 2010-2011 under the integrated scheme of oilseeds, pulses, oil palm and maize (ISOPOM).
“Therefore, there is an urgent need to bring additional area under oilseeds besides measures to enhance per unit area production of these crops,” said the letter.
Oilseeds stand next only to food grains in agricultural production. Bulk of the oilseed and vegetable oil production in the country is derived from the nine annual oilseed crops – groundnut, soybean, rapeseed and mustard, sunflower, sesamum, safflower, niger, castor and linseed.
However, this time pulses was excluded from the ISOPOM as the central government converged the pulses programme under National Food Security Mission from April 1.
“This has been done to avoid duplication as pulses is the major component in the National Food Security Mission, launched from 2007-08 Rabi season,” said a ministry official.
