The recent floods have affected more than 2.43 lakh hectares of crop area in different parts of the country, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

Replying to a question on the impact of recent floods in various states on Tuesday, Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, said the estimation in regard to damage to crops is done by the state governments concerned.

The Minister furnished the provisional data related to crop damage due to floods. According to which, Assam suffered maximum damage. Of the 2.43 lakh hectares of crop area affected by floods in different states of the country, Assam’s share was around 2.40 lakh hectares, followed by 1,479 hectares in Karnataka and 1,102 hectares in Meghalaya.

Sunflower production

To a separate query on the Government’s plans to promote sunflower cultivation in the country, Tomar said the Government has been implementing a centrally-sponsored scheme - National Food Security Mission - Oilseeds and Oil palm (NFSM-OS&OP) - from 2018-19 to augment the availability of edible oils by increasing the production and productivity of nine oilseed crops, including sunflower, and to reduce India’s import burden. The NFSM-OS is being implemented in 28 states and union territories during 2022-23.

On the member’s query on Karnataka-specific production plans for sunflower, the Minister said the Government has allocated targets to the Karnataka government to carry out sunflower cluster demonstration in 3168 hectares, and cluster demonstration in bee-keeping in 50 hectares under NFSM-OS during 2022-23.

Sunflower oil import

Tomar said 5.70 lakh tonnes (lt) of sunflower oil has been imported by India since February 21 to June 30 2022 as against import of 7.39 lt of sunflower oil during the corresponding period of the previous year.

India imports sunflower oil mainly from Ukraine, Russia, and Argentina. It may be mentioned here that Russia and Ukraine are at war since February this year.

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