Oilseeds

Topic: Major Crops of India: Distribution and Conditions · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 4 "Agriculture"; Class 12, Ch 3 "Land Resources and Agriculture"

Meaning

Oilseeds are crops whose seeds are crushed to get edible oil (oil we cook with). The leftover cake is fed to animals, and some oils also go into soap, cosmetics and ointments. They cover about 14% of India's total cropped area (NCERT Class 12; Class 10 gives about 12%). Most are grown on rainfed drylands, so yields stay low. As a result, imports still meet more than half of India's edible-oil demand [4][5].

Explanation

Main crops and their seasons

• Class 10 NCERT list: groundnut, mustard, coconut, sesamum (til), soybean, castor, cotton seed, linseed and sunflower.
• Kharif crops are sown with the south-west monsoon (June–July) and harvested in September–October. Rabi crops are sown in winter (October–December) and harvested in spring (April–June).

Crop	Season	Key condition
Groundnut	Kharif	Also grown in rabi in the south
Rapeseed-mustard	Rabi	Needs cool, dry winters; damaged by frost
Linseed	Rabi	—
Sesamum (til)	Kharif in the north, rabi in the south	Season changes with the region
Castor	Kharif and rabi	Grown in both seasons
Soybean	Kharif	Grows on black soil in the monsoon

• Groundnut is a legume. Its pods grow and ripen under the soil.
• It covers about 3.6% of the cropped area.

• It gives about half the output of the major oilseeds (Class 10).

• Rapeseed-mustard is a group in the mustard family: rai, sarson, toria and taramira.

• These are subtropical rabi crops. A cold night at flowering time can harm the crop.

• They cover about 2.5% of the cropped area. About two-thirds of that area is irrigated.

• Soybean is a kharif legume. It gives oil, and a protein-rich meal for animal feed.

• Soybean meal (the cake left after the oil is taken out) is a major export as animal and poultry feed.

• Coconut is the main oil crop of the coastal states. Cotton seed is a by-product of cotton.

Why oilseeds are a dryland crop

• Low need, poor soil: most oilseeds need little water and can grow on poor soils.
• Pushed aside by other crops: farmers who have irrigation usually grow rice, wheat or sugarcane instead.
• Result: oilseeds end up on rainfed land, where yields are low and change a lot from year to year.
• About 70% of the oilseed area is rainfed.
• Good seed is often not available.

Output and the edible-oil gap

• Record output: India grew 42.99 million tonnes (Mt) in 2024-25. That is 56% more than in 2014-15 (27.51 Mt) [4].
• World share: India grows about 5–6% of the world's oilseeds [4][5].
• The edible-oil gap is the difference between the oil India uses and the oil it makes. Imports fill it.
• Import dependence fell from 63.2% (2015-16) to 56.25% (2023-24) [4].

• Imports meet about 57% of demand. Home production meets only about 44% [5].

• Why the gap exists:

• Demand keeps rising: people earn more and the population grows, so they eat more oil.
• Yields stay low: most of the crop is rainfed and good seed is scarce.

• Imports are cheap: low-cost palm oil removes the farmer's price advantage.

• Effect: India pays a large import bill. Kitchen oil prices move with world markets and with wars such as Russia–Ukraine (2022).

Policy responses

• Technology Mission on Oilseeds (TMO), 1986: it brought better seed, better methods, price support and processing.
• Output rose so fast that it was called the "Yellow Revolution" (yellow for the mustard flower).

• Import duties were cut in the 1990s. Cheap oil came in, and dependence on imports rose again.

• NMEO-Oil Palm (August 2021): see "Where it occurs" below.

• NMEO-Oilseeds (October 2024): see "Where it occurs" below.
• GM mustard DMH-11 (Dhara Mustard Hybrid-11):
• It was developed at Delhi University by a team led by Deepak Pental.
• How it works (the barnase-barstar system):
  • The barnase gene makes one parent line male-sterile, so it cannot pollinate itself.
  • That line is crossed with a parent carrying barstar. Barstar blocks barnase, so the hybrid seed is fertile.
  • Result: mustard, which normally pollinates itself, can be made into hybrids on a large scale.
• GEAC approval: GEAC (Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee) approved its environmental release at its 147th meeting on 18 October 2022. The release was for seed production and testing [6].

Where it occurs

• Main dryland belts:
• the Malwa plateau (Madhya Pradesh)
• Marathwada (Maharashtra)
• Gujarat and Rajasthan
• Telangana and Rayalaseema (Andhra Pradesh)

• the Karnataka plateau

• Groundnut:

• Top states in 2019-20: Gujarat, then Rajasthan, then Tamil Nadu. Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra also grow it.
• Yields are high in Tamil Nadu, where part of the crop is irrigated. They are low in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, where the crop depends on uncertain rain.

• In the world, India grew 18.8% of groundnut (2018) and ranked second after China (2020, Class 10).

• Rapeseed-mustard:

• It is grown in the north-west and centre of India.

• Rajasthan grows about one-third of the output, followed by Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. Yields are high in Haryana and Rajasthan.

• Soybean:

• Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra grow about 90% of it (NCERT).

• It grows on the black soils of the Malwa plateau and Vidarbha–Marathwada.

• Sunflower: Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and nearby parts of Maharashtra.

• Import sources:
• Palm oil: Indonesia and Malaysia
• Soybean oil: mainly Argentina, also Brazil

• Sunflower oil: Russia and Ukraine

• NMEO-OP (2021):

• It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (the Centre and the states share the cost) [3].
• Focus areas: the North-East and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which are warm, wet and get high rainfall.
• Area target: add 6.5 lakh ha of oil palm by 2025-26, reaching 10 lakh ha in the end [3].

• Outlay: ₹11,040 crore. The Centre pays ₹8,844 crore and the states pay ₹2,196 crore [3].

• NMEO-Oilseeds (2024):

• It runs from 2024-25 to 2030-31 with an outlay of ₹10,103 crore [2].
• It plans 600+ value-chain clusters in 347 districts [2].
• It will also use rice-fallow and potato-fallow land (land left empty after the rice or potato harvest) [2].

Don't confuse with

• Yellow Revolution vs Green Revolution: the Yellow Revolution came from the Technology Mission on Oilseeds (1986) and is about oilseeds. The Green Revolution was about foodgrains.
• Top producer vs top yield (groundnut): Gujarat grows the most groundnut. Tamil Nadu has the highest yields because part of its crop is irrigated.
• NMEO-OP vs NMEO-Oilseeds:
• NMEO-OP (2021) covers only oil palm, a tree crop, and focuses on the North-East and the Andamans [3].

• NMEO-Oilseeds (2024) covers the main oilseed crops and aims for 69.7 Mt by 2030-31 [2].

• GEAC vs an agriculture-ministry body: GEAC, which approves GM crops such as DMH-11, sits under the environment ministry (MoEFCC), not the agriculture ministry.

Prelims Hooks

• Seasons: groundnut and soybean are kharif. Mustard and linseed are rabi. Sesamum is kharif in the north and rabi in the south. Castor is grown in both seasons.
• Top producers:
• Groundnut: Gujarat, then Rajasthan, then Tamil Nadu (2019-20).
• Rapeseed-mustard: Rajasthan (about one-third), then Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.

• Soybean: Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra (about 90% together, NCERT).

• Edible-oil import dependence: it fell from 63.2% (2015-16) to 56.25% (2023-24) [4].

• NMEO-OP formula price: industry must pay farmers 14.3% of the crude palm oil (CPO) price, rising to 15.3%. The North-East and the Andamans get an extra 2% of the CPO price [3].
• NMEO-Oilseeds targets:
• Raise primary oilseed output from 39 Mt (2022-23) to 69.7 Mt by 2030-31 [2].
• Together with NMEO-OP, raise domestic edible oil to 25.45 Mt, about 72% of expected demand [2].

• Set up 65 seed hubs and 50 seed storage units [2].

• DMH-11:

• It was made at Delhi University and uses the barnase-barstar system.
• GEAC cleared it at its 147th meeting on 18 October 2022 [6].
• On 23 July 2024, the Supreme Court gave a split verdict in Gene Campaign v. Union of India [7][8].

Mains Points

• Why oilseeds stay weak (GS-III):
• Weak base: most oilseeds are grown on rainfed drylands (Malwa, Marathwada, Rayalaseema, Karnataka plateau), where yields are low and seed is poor.
• Cheap imports: low-cost palm oil cuts the farmer's price advantage.

• Result: about 56–57% of edible oil is imported. This exposes India to world price shocks and wars such as Russia–Ukraine (2022) [4][5].

• Policy response and its trade-offs:

• TMO (1986): it led to the Yellow Revolution, but tariff cuts in the 1990s reversed the gains.
• NMEO-OP (2021) and NMEO-Oilseeds (2024): they aim for about 72% self-sufficiency by 2030-31. The tools are fallow land, seed hubs and value-chain clusters [2][3].

• Oil palm: it gives the most oil per hectare. But it may clear forests in the biodiversity hotspots of the North-East and the Andamans. It also needs a lot of water and locks farmers into a monoculture (one crop over a large area) that takes 4–5 years to give fruit.

• GM crops debate (DMH-11):

• The promise: higher yields from hybrid mustard.
• The concerns:
  • The bar gene makes the crop tolerate the weedkiller glufosinate, which may lead to heavy weedkiller use.
  • Bees may be harmed, and honey output may fall.
  • India is a centre of mustard diversity (a place with many native varieties), and GM genes could spread to them.
• The Supreme Court's split verdict and its call for a national GM-crop policy show gaps in regulation [7][8].

Related concepts

• Groundnut
• Rapeseed and mustard
• Soybean
• Oil palm mission
• GM mustard

Read more

• Oilseeds and the edible-oil gap