India’s castorseed production is estimated at 17.95 lakh tonnes (lt) during the current 2021-22 season, against 17.89 lt in 2020-21.
Revealing results of the Indian Castor Crop Survey for 2021-22 at the SEA (Solvent Extractors’ Association of India) Global Castor Conference 2022 on the virtual platform, Santosh Jhanwar of Indian Agribusiness Systems, said Gujarat is likely to contribute 15.47 lt to the projected production, Rajasthan 2.03 lt, and Andhra Pradesh and Telangana 35,000 tonnes.
Quoting government estimates, the survey estimated castor acreage in the country at 8.11 lakh hectares during 2021-22, against 8.26 lakh hectares in 2020-21. Of this, the acreage in Gujarat is estimated at 6.52 lakh hectares (6.38 lakh hectares) and Rajasthan at 1.20 lakh hectares (1.25 lakh hectares).
The survey said the castor yield is estimated at 2,228 kg per hectare in 2021-22, against 2,166 kg a year ago. Of this, Gujarat’s castor yield is estimated at 2,371.3 kg per hectare (2,342 kg) and Rajasthan’s yield at 1,690.2 kg (1,780 kg).
Jhanwar said the estimates are based on two rounds of field surveys between December and February, and remote sensing analysis.
Around 2,650 farmers were interviewed for the survey. This included 1,850 farmers from Gujarat, 600 from Rajasthan and 200 from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
There will be a third round of field surveys during March-April for revalidation
in order to finalise production.
He said temperature, availability of water for irrigation and market prices may impact the final yield in the coming months.
Later, participating in a panel discussion, Abhay Udeshi, Chairman of Jayant Agro Organics, said Agriwatch is optimistic about its survey and does not endorse it. Stating that he will wait for the next estimation, he said production is likely to be 10 per cent lower than last year.
He said he would also disagree with Agriwatch’s carry-in stock estimates of 2 lakh tonnes. He estimated it to be around 1.5 lakh tonnes as on January 1.
Deepak Thakkar of Gokul Agro Resources said the government had estimated crop production at 15 lakh tonnes. However, production could be 1.5 lakh tonnes more than that, and it could be in the range of 16.5 lakh tonnes, he said.
To a query by Atul Chaturvedi, President of SEA, who moderated the session, Thakkar said the country now has a lower level of inventories.
Castor oil futures soon
Earlier, Arun Raste, MD and CEO of NCDEX, informed the webinar that India has a monopolistic situation in castor business. It is also good that Indian producers are benefiting from the growing castor business.
“As an exchange, we recognise the importance of this non-edible commodity and we launched castor contracts, which is enabling our producers and traders, to help them hedge their prices.
“Because of the importance of the castor oilseed basket, SEBI has approved NCDEX’s proposal to launch castor oil contracts. I am very happy to share with you all that we will soon launch the castor oil contract,” he said.
Raste said this will enable Indian producers and exporters to hedge their risks, and will also enable e importers in other countries to use NCDEX to hedge their price risks.