India is a paradise for oilseed crops. Oilseeds, the second largest agricultural commodity after cereals in India, play a significant role in India's agrarian economy, sharing 14% of the gross cropped area and accounting for nearly 5% of the gross national product and 10% of the value of all agricultural products. A range of oilseed crops viz., groundnut, rapeseed and mustard, soybean, sesame, sunflower, safflower, niger, linseed and castor are cultivated in the country. Though India occupies a premier position in terms of area, its contribution towards World's production of annual oilseeds is less than 10%. It is mainly due to extremely low productivity of oilseeds. Nutrients and water are the key inputs for higher yields. The interaction among the nutrients (N×P, N×K, P×K, N×P×K, NPK with S, NPK with organic manures, NPK with micro and secondary nutrients and NPK with biofertilizers), interactions of water and nutrients are the most important factors responsible for higher productivity and greater oilseed stock of the country. If the nature of interaction is properly understood, large increase in oilseeds is expected to come from such interactions. Several nutrient interactions and irrigation × nutrient interactive technologies are available, but their potential in increasing yield has not yet been exploited properly. There exists a tremendous scope for further increasing the oilseed productivity through exploiting these inter-active technologies.
