Mustard Cultivation in India

Ask most people to name India’s top oilseed, and few would say mustard. Yet it beats every other edible oilseed grown in the country.

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Indian Economy · IndEco0104

Mustard Cultivation in India

India’s most-grown edible oilseed, dominated by one state

28.6%

of India’s total oilseed output is mustard — the single largest share

52.03 lakh t

Rajasthan’s mustard output, 2024-25 Rabi season

81.5% / 87.5%

Top-5 states’ share of area / production

Feeding the edible-oil mission

A dedicated ICAR research directorate has backed this crop since 1993, from Bharatpur, Rajasthan. A strong mustard harvest directly supports the National Mission on Edible Oils – Oilseeds, cutting India’s reliance on imported cooking oil.

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Must Know

• Mustard, also called rapeseed-mustard, is India’s leading edible oilseed crop by production.
• In 2023-24, it produced about 13.2 million tonnes, roughly 28.6% of India’s total oilseed output.
• It is grown as a Rabi (winter) crop, since it is a cool-season annual plant.
• Rajasthan is by far the largest producer, followed by Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat.

Good to Know

• These five leading states together account for about 81.5% of India’s mustard-growing area.
• They also produce about 87.5% of India’s total mustard output.
• In the 2024-25 Rabi season, Rajasthan alone cultivated about 34.74 lakh hectares of mustard.
• That land produced an estimated 52.03 lakh tonnes of mustard.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. Which crop is India’s leading edible oilseed by production, ahead of every other oilseed grown in the country?

Groundnut

Soybean

Mustard (rapeseed-mustard)

Sunflower

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Great to Know

• India has a dedicated research body for this crop.
• ICAR set it up on 20 October 1993, as the National Research Centre on Rapeseed-Mustard, at Sewar, Bharatpur, in Rajasthan.
• In February 2009, it was redesignated as the Directorate of Rapeseed-Mustard Research.
• Mustard’s strong domestic output also matters for India’s wider edible-oil policy.
• The National Mission on Edible Oils – Oilseeds (NMEO-Oilseeds) is the government’s separate scheme aimed at cutting India’s dependence on imported cooking oil.
• A strong mustard harvest directly supports that mission’s goal, since mustard oil is one of India’s most widely used cooking oils.