The country’s soybean output is likely to touch 105 lakh tonne-110 lakh tonne due to an increase in acreage in addition to conducive weather conditions, industry associations said.
“If we take the average production of the previous three seasons, the production has been in the range of 95 lakh tonne to 100 lakh tonne. Last season the production was around 83 lakh tonne. This season although there has been a drought in some parts of Maharashtra, the soybean pockets have not been impacted much and the weather has been favourable in Madhya Pradesh,” BV Mehta , executive director, Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA) said.

For the current season, the association estimates the production to touch 105 lakh tonne to 110 lakh tonne, he said. The Minimum Support Price ( MSP) for soybean has been fixed by the government at Rs 3,390 per quintal.
DN Pathak, executive director, Soybean Processors Association of India ( SOPA) said that crop is likely to touch 110-115 lakh tonnes since the area under cultivation has increased. “SOPA in its first survey of soybean crop for 2018-19 season has estimated the total area under soybean for the year 2018 at 108.396 lakh hectares. The area has increased by 6.83 lakh hectares (6.7%) as compared to previous year,” he said.

SOPA, however, is in the process to compile the soybean output data for the current year. According to the first advanced estimate, India’s soybean output is likely to touch 134.6 lakh tonne as compared to 109.8 lakh tonne last year.
As per SOPA estimates, the area under cultivation in Maharashtra is 36.390 lakh hectares which is 10% less than the government estimates of 40.433 lakh hectares. Similarly the actual area in Rajasthan is 9.212 lakh hectares as compared to 10.112 lakh hectare given by the government. The area in Madhya Pradesh has however, increased to 54.1 00 lakh hectares in 2018 as against 50.100 lakh hectares in 2017.
The average yield here is expected to touch 1,094 kg per hectare from 838 kg per hectare in 2017. Similarly in Telangana, the area for 2018 is 1.791 lakh hectares. In 2017 it was 1.652 lakh hectares and the expected yield is 877 kg per hectare in 2018 as against 638 kg per hectare.

In Karnataka, the area has gone up from 2.710 lakh hectares in 2017 to 3.190 lakh hectares in 2018. It is likely to result in a production of 911 kg per hectare in 2018 from 640 kg per hectare. The average yield for the year 2018 is estimated as 1059 kg/hectare as against 823 kg/hectare during the year 2017.
Meanwhile, soybean prices in Latur were in the range of Rs 3,400 to Rs 3450 per quintal on increased demand from oil mills. Soyabean prices also firmed in Nagpur on increase in demand from local crushing plants amid tight supply from producing regions.