Indian Oilseeds and Produce Export Promotion Council (IOPEPC) has forecasted a bumper groundnut crop in Kharif 2013.

During their Annual Trade meet held in Hyderabad, IOPEPC, which comes under the Ministry of Commerce, announced that groundnut production during Kharif 2013 is estimated to be 49.16 lakh tonnes in five major states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu which account for close to 90 per cent of total groundnuts produced in India.

This is higher by 21.03 lakh tonnes as compared to Kharif 2012, when the crop was only 28.12 lakh tonnes in these states, owing to monsoon failure. The final crop estimates will be released after crop cutting experiment in December 2013.

Groundnut exports during 2013-14 are expected to be about 6 lakh tonnes. Sesame seed exports this year may be lower because of extensive damage to crop caused by heavy rains during extended monsoon in major sesame growing areas.

Kishore Tanna, Chairman, IOPEPC, while releasing the figures, in a statement informed that area and crop estimation till now has been traditionally based on limited field survey and revenue records, which are susceptible to errors, leading to wrong estimates.

To enable trade to make informed business decisions, IOPEPC has undertaken a project to correctly assess the crop, using GIS or satellite based crop survey and scientific yield model based on historic weather data. This provides accurate date.

Ajit Chavan, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, said export of agriculture produce is on top of the Government's agenda. As a result of which India's agri exports have risen from $15 billion during 2009-10 to $37 billion during 2012-13.

He assured Government support to promote agri exports and informed about some of the major and structural policy changes made in the last three years, which have helped exports.

Sixteen exporters were given awards for excellence in exports of various oilseeds and edible oils by Ajit Chavan.

>rishikumar.vundi@thehindu.co.in

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