Pantnagar Journal of Research

Abstract

Oilseed group is an important cash crop group in Indian agriculture. They are the source of edible oils for the country. The oilseed group is classified into nine oilseeds which are groundnut, sunflower, soybean, rapeseed mustard, sunflower, sesame, niger, linseed and castor. Linseed and castor are considered as inedible oilseed. India is a major producer and consumer of oilseeds and their products, and emerged as one of the world’s largest importers of edible oils in the late 1990s. Oilseed are imported to meet the consumption demand of the country because despite of their increasing production the oilseed sector has shown unstable performance. The present study has examined growth and instability in one of the important oilseed crop rapeseed and mustard in major producing states in India as well as in the country as a whole in the context of Technology Mission on Oilseeds (TMO) by estimating compound annual growth rates of area, production and productivity and by constructing Cuddy Della Valle indices, respectively, during the TMO period and prior to it.