Trade liberalisation and domestic reforms in Indian oilseeds sector Meena Murlidhar1,*, Mahammadhusen Khorajiya2 1ICAR-Directorate of Groundnut Research, Junagadh-362001, Gujarat, India 2Department of Agricultural Economics, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh-362001, Gujarat, India *Address for correspondence Murlidhar Meena: ICAR-Directorate of Groundnut Research, Junagadh-362001, Gujarat, India E-mail: meenamurlidhar@gmail.com
Online published on 28 April, 2016. Abstract Present study has tried to capture the changes took place in oilseed economy of the country during pre-(1970–71 to 1994–95) and post-WTO (1995–96 to 2012–13) periods. The expansion of acreage under oilseeds (from 16.6 in 1970–71 to 26.7 Mha in 2012–13), coupled with yield improvement from 519 to 1164 kg/ha, resulted in increased production by more than three and half times from 8.6 to 31.1 Mt in respective periods. The share of area and production of different oilseeds have changed in study period. The groundnut and other oilseeds viz.; safflower, sesamum, niger, castor, and linseed were the major oilseed crops in 1970’s, have been displaced by soyabean and rapeseed & mustard in the recent period. TMOP in 1986 results in higher growth in area and production in pre-WTO than that of post-WTO period in all the oilseeds. Higher instability in production than area and yield was observed in all the oilseeds, except sunflower because more than 70 per cent of oilseeds in the country are grown under rain fed and resource poor situations. In case of edible oils, production, availability and per capita consumption increased in study period. But the consumption pattern has drastically changed from domestically produced groundnut, rapeseed & mustard oils in pre-WTO period to mostly imported palm, sunflower and soya oils in post-WTO period. India attained almost self sufficiency in edible oils during early 90’s, but import dependence has increased then after which may further like to increase in future. Hence study suggests the need of policy reforms for development of oilseeds sector and to became self sufficient in edible oils. Top Keywords Oilseeds, edible oils, WTO, CGR, instability index. Top |