India’s soybean area may decline as farmers choose to grow maize, pulses in central India

India’s soybean area may decline as farmers choose to grow maize, pulses in central India


The area under kharif oilseed crop soybean is likely to decline this year as Indian farmers in key producing states Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra turn to other profitable crops like maize (maize) and pulses. Due to the early advance of monsoon in central India, the main soybean producing region, sowing of oilseed crops is almost complete.

“We expect soybean acreage to remain low this year as farmers shift to other crops like maize and pulses. Maize has given good returns last year and pulses prices are trending higher, while soybean prices are down and trending below the minimum support price level. Apparently, farmers feel there will be much higher returns for crops like maize and pulses and have given up sowing soybean,” said DN Pathak, executive director of apex trade body Soybean Processors Association of India (SOPA).

sopa survey

Stating that reduction in soybean coverage will be everywhere, Pathak said the shift towards corn is mainly in Madhya Pradesh, while farmers in Maharashtra have prioritized more sowing of pulses and cotton. SOPA has started surveying the sown area and the data is likely to be available in the next few weeks.

According to agriculture ministry data, soybean was planted on about 60.63 lakh hectares (LH) till July 5. The area under soybean in the same period last year was 28.86 LH. The area under soybean during Kharif 2023 was 124.11 lakh per hectare.

According to Agmarknet data, the model price (the price at which most of the trading takes place) of soybean in Madhya Pradesh mandis on Thursday was between â‚ı3,971 and â‚ı4,500 per quintal. The Center recently announced MSP for soybean at â‚ı4,892 per quintal – 6.3 per cent higher than last year’s â‚ı4,600.

slack demand

Rahul Chauhan of Igrains India said the area is increasing this year as sowing was delayed last year due to slow progress of monsoon. However, this year the monsoon has reached the entire country six days ahead of schedule.

Chouhan said soybean sowing is still going on and the total area may decline this year as farmers may switch to other crops like arhar and urad, paddy and maize.

“The market for soybean is down, and prices have been below the MSP level during the season. Moreover, demand from the crushing industry has been low due to abundant availability of cheap imported oils,” he said.

India’s edible oil imports increased by 16.46 per cent to 1.52 million tonnes during June 2024 from 1.31 million tonnes in the same period a year ago.