Government has formed strategy to achieve self sufficiency in oilseeds productionAiming to achieve self-sufficiency in oilseeds production, the Centre has approved the proposal offree distribution of high yielding varieties of seeds to the farmers for the Kharif season 2021, in the form of mini-kits.The special Kharif programme will bring an additional 6.37 lakh hectare area under oilseeds and is likely to produce 120.26 lakh quintals of oilseeds and edible oil amounting to 24.36 lakh tonnes, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Agriculture.The ministry has put emphasis on enhancing the productivity of oilseeds by increasing the availability of high yielding varieties of seeds for the farmers'use.
Accordingly, the special Kharif plan was discussed in detail with state governments, and after this, both area and productivity enhancement has been formulated forsoybeanandgroundnutwith a focus on high yielding varieties of seeds to be provided free of cost under theNational Food Security Mission (Oil Seeds and Oil Palm) Mission.This would be done through distribution of soybean seeds forintercropping of41 districts in the sixstatesof Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, Telangana and Chhattisgarh costing Rs76.03 crore and covering 1,47,500 ha.Apart from this, soybean seeds would also be distributed inhigh potential districts in 73 districts of the eight states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat costingRs 104 crore and 3,90,000 ha.The mini kits would be distributed in 90 districts of nine states namely Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Telangana Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar costingRs 40 crore.
The area to be covered in these districts will be1,006,636ha and the number of mini-kits to be distributed are8,16,435.