India continues to dominate castor seed production

Satnam Singh

New Delhi – Castor seed production in India is projected to be about 2.054MT in 2023-24, according to Indian Agribusiness Systems, who carried out a crop survey for the Solvent Extraction Association of India (SEA). Castor oil is an important source material for biobased polyols.

The growth in India’s castor yield is the result of a key crop improvement project launched by SEA in 2017. “This year, the project was expanded to nine districts of Gujarat and two districts of Rajasthan, creating nearly 600 new model farms,” SEA president Ajay Jhunjhunwala, told the recent Global Castor Conference in Ahmedabad.

The castor model farm programme has led to substantial increases in average productivity. More than 30,000 farmers have been trained in sustainable practices since the programme started. The typical yield of the model farms is now 4416kg/hectare, compared to 3500kg/hectare when the programme started.

“Castor is a cash cow for India as it is an export-oriented commodity, contributing a foreign exchange of about $1.3bn to the country,” Shailesh Baldha, chairman of the Castor Promotion Council said at the conference.

SEA has also launched the World Castor Sustainability Forum. This focuses on developing a sustainable and traceable supply chain for castor, as well as improving social, economic and environmental performance.

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