Agrometeorology of Rapeseed-mustard in Himachal Pradesh state of India
Creators: name: Prasad, Rajendra
name: Kumar, P Vijaya
name: Rao, Ch. Srinivasa
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Agrometeorology
Rapeseed-Mustard
Himachal Pradesh

description: India is the largest rapeseed-mustard growing country in the world occupying firstposition in area and second in production. Indian mustard is nutritionally very rich and its oilcontent varies from 37 to 49%. As per ICAR vision document 2020, country’s estimated need ofoilseeds is 58 million tonnes. The current production of 6.2 million tonnes from 5.6 million haarea with 1.1 ton productivity is far below the achievable average of 2.0 tons/ha in mustard. Therapeseed oil production increased to 2.11 million tonnes in 2015-16 from the previous harvest of1.94 million tonnes in 2014-15. Yet there is a huge gap between estimated need and production ofedible oils in the country. Per capita oil consumption in India per year is 14.4 kg which is muchlower than global average of 24 kg. As edible oil consumption is much more income-elastic,oilseeds production in India would be required to step up faster to keep pace with theconsumption requirements. Cheap and adequate availability of edible oils is possible only if morearea is brought under improved varieties and the yield gaps are bridged up through improvedmanagement practices. Rapeseed-mustard group of crop (s) are grown as sole crop or as anintercrop with wheat in Himachal Pradesh. This crop is grown over an area of 11.37 thousand hawith a total production of 6.37 thousand tonnes and productivity of 590 kg/ha which is muchlower than national average. The lower productivity is thus, a major cause of concern. Deficitprecipitation further aggregates the situation as was the case during last two monsoon seasons.The climate and soils of the state are largely suitable for the cultivation of rapeseedmustard. This crop is grown in almost all the districts mostly under rain fed conditions with somearea in Kinnaur and Lahaul & Spiti also. Adequate residual moisture availability during sowing of rapeseed-mustard (particularly toria) ensures germination but inadequate and erraticallydistributed rains cause moisture stress at later stages which reduces the productivity. Shallowcoarse textured soils with undulating topography have poor soil moisture holding capacityleading to poor moisture availability. Mid and high hills encounter low air and soil temperatureconditions resulting in stunted growth during initial phases of crop growth. Therefore, weathertakes a heavy toll on this crop. Ample work on the Agrometeorological aspect of rapeseedmustard has been carried out under All India Coordinated Research Project on Agrometeorology,Palampur Centre. The documentation of this work will really be helpful to identify the criticalgaps to plan the future research programmes and address the issues of sustainable production ofrapeseed-mustard through adequate weather proofing strategies.I congratulate authors for bringing out ‘The Agrometeorology of Rapeseed-Mustard inHimachal Pradesh state of India’. I sincerely hope that this publication will be of immense use tothe researchers, farm managers and the students.