Contribution of area, productivity and their interaction towards changing oilseeds and soybean production scenario in India

An attempt has been made to ascertain the contribution dynamics of area and productivity and their interaction to the total production of nine oilseeds and soybean utilizing the secondary data for each five year plans as well as for cumulative period till date. The results lead to conclude that the interaction of area x productivity dominantly governed the total production. The expansion in area, in general, contributed higher to production than yield. The production of nine oilseeds was contributed significantly by the increase in productivity whereas in case of soybean individual effect of productivity was not discernible to that extent. This is attributable to the continuous increase in irrigated area under nine oilseeds from 6 per cent (1970) to above 27 per cent (till date). Nearly ninety eight per cent area under soybean is still rainfed. In oilseeds including soybean, negative absolute and relative changes were observed in fifth and ninth plan periods and may be attributed to prevailing climate.