For migrants from Odisha, a precious memory from back home involves different snacks with fried/roasted groundnut as the main ingredient. But in the last decade, it has vanished as the staple as farmers shifted en masse from groundnut to paddy.

“Monkeys were destroying the crop every year and there was no remedy. So better to sow something else and as paddy was already there, I decided to expand the cereal area further,” said a Odiya farmer. He still reminisces about the quality of groundnut oil that he would harvest for his year-long requirement, especially as he now has to buy refined oil from the market. But that does not change the ground reality that his favoured crop, groundnut, is no longer a viable option if farming is to remain financially viable for his family.

He is not alone. Odisha is one of the many states, including the largest producer Gujarat, where the acreage has shrunk over the years. Groundnut cultivation in Odisha was done in nearly 4 lakh hectare (lh) in 1990-91. This has dropped to 29,000 hectare by 2019-20 (though it moved up to 44,000 hectares last year).

The all-India groundnut acreage has dropped from a peak of over 87 lh in 1989-90 to less than 46 lh in 2015-16 in the last three and half decades. It was only in 2024-25 that its area increased by more than 10 lh to 57.54 lh from its previous year.

What has led to the shrink in area? It is not just the policy-orientation but a combination of factors that have remained un-addressed in the last several decades.

Losing ground

The importance of groundnut, primarily a Kharif crop, can be assessed from the fact that it was cultivated across many States before the financial viability and pricing related to some other crops such as paddy muscled it out of favour. The yield of some good varieties are one of the best among the oilseeds crops — 22-24 quintal/hectare. The best part is its oil content as high as 50-52 per cent.

In contrast, the average per hectare yield of soyabean is 11.72 quintal, that of mustard (a Rabi crop) 14.61 quintal, sunflower 11.29 quintal, sesame 5.41 quintal. The oil content in soyabean is 18-20 per cent, in mustard it is about 46 per cent and in sunflower up to 50 per cent depending on varieties.

According to the latest report of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), the three years’ average gross returns over costs of production (A2+FL) between 2021-22 and 2023-24 was ₹19,749/ha in soyabean, ₹13,917/ha in sunflower, ₹13,576/ha in sesamum, and ₹1,474/ha in nigerseed.

The only exception was groundnut, where the return was higher at ₹38,017/ha.

The area coverage of groundnut in Gujarat during last three and half decades shows that last year it reached at 19.55 lh, same level as it was in 2005-06, but still lower than 22.08 lh of 1981-82. Even sesame area too slid from 4.02 lh in 2003-04 to less than 1 lh in 2018-19. As the groundnut and sesamum area shrank, the acreage of soyabean has jumped from 11,000 hectare in 1980-81 to 3.01 lh last year and that of cotton from 15.72 lh to 23.72 lh.

Of late, Bundelkhand region, comprising 7 districts each of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, has emerged as a major groundnut producing belt, contributing to 90 per cent productionin both the States where the area was 10.89 lh in 2024-25. However, there is not a single oil processing unit there, said Sanjay Gupta, CEO of Ramraja FPO. He plans to set up a unit for which the Uttar Pradesh government has allotted some land, he said. But, the requirement is so huge that one plant cannot meet, he said adding most of the groundnut is sold in Gujarat and Maharashtra where edible oil units are located.

This shows the importance of government intervention, hand holding and micro management of crops planning as well as establishing forward linkage to move towards self reliance in edible oils, where the country meets the domestic demand through over 50 per cent imported oils from mainly Indonesia, Malaysia, Argentina and Brazil.

Issues with soyabean

The report said that the Gross Value of Output (GVO) from nigerseed, sesamum, sunflower and soybean was substantially lower than groundnut due to lower yields. Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had already flagged this concern to the Indian council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) about the low productivity of soyabean — a key crop of Madhya Pradesh, his home State.

Chouhan is holding a day-long consultation with stakeholders of soyabean including breeders, processors and state officials on Thursday at Indore, Madhya Pradesh about various concerns with regard to the crop.

Kedar Sirohi, a farmer leader of Madhya Pradesh, who grows soyabean in about 30 acres of land, blames the low productivity on fake or substandard seeds sold to farmers.

“Groundnut may give higher return, but it is not suitable for the soil of MP where currently soyabean area is concentrated. When it started picking up in 1980s, the shifting was mainly from jowar and paddy. Farmers shifted to soyabean as it was almost at zero input cost without any fear of pest. But, in the last few years, there have been substandard seeds sold without any government control. There is no genetic purity of the seeds and many are even buying the regular crop from local mandi and selling those under packets of truthfully labelled (TL) seeds. As a result farmers are applying 70 kg in one acre whereas it was about 30 kg earlier,” Sirohi said.

He noted that very few farmers in the State are harvesting 25 quintal/hectare yield. Highlighting that the soyabean crop has changed the economy of farmers in the State, he favours its continuation, but with suitable changes in government policy to make its farming profitable and sustainable.

But, some experts question the continuation of soyabean, pointing to its low oil content and yield. “There was time when soyabean became a favourite as no other crop was that lucrative. But there has to be a re-evaluation as such a large area under the crop is a waste when the derived edible oil volume is so low on a pan-India basis,” said an agriculture scientist, who suggested proper crop planning at the national level to augment the edible oil availability from crops with better oil content and yield.

Recently, Niti Aayog had floated a working paper on “Promoting India-US Agricultural Trade Under the New US Trade Regime”, which was later withdrawn by the authors Raka Saxena and Ramesh Chand after strong protest by Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) and other farmer groups. It had suggested allowing import of genetically modified (GM) soyabean and maize, among other issues.

Citing the experiment with GM cotton (where no new technology has been allowed), BKS questioned why pest attacks are frequent in Bt cotton.

According to Mohini Mohan Mishra, general secretary of BKS, once GM crop is allowed, farmers will be at the mercy of seed companies as they would not have any option after a few years and traditional crops would have been extinct by then. He also favoured crop planning and assured prices to overcome issue of oilseeds shortage.

According to official data, the soyabean acreage in the country has reached from 6.08 lh in 1980-81 to 129.57 lh in 2024-25 during which Madhya Pradesh saw a rise from 4.55 lh to 58.72 lh and Maharashtra from 0.55 lh (in 1986 it started) to 50.72 lh.

On the other hand, sesame area dropped to 0.11 lh in 2022-23 (though picked up marginally to 0.37 lh last year) from a peak of 3.80 lh in 1988-89, jowar from 66.47 lh in 1982-83 to 14.78 lh in 2022-23 in Maharashtra. Similarly, area of paddy slipped from a high of 54.80 lh in 1998-99 to a low of 14.46 lh in 2009-10 (since rose to 39.36 lh last year) and from 23.52 lh in 1980-81 under jowar to now 0.90 lh in Madhya Pradesh.

Published on June 26, 2025