Commodity Outlook – Castor Seed

agribazaar October 12, 2020

Sowing period: July to October
Harvesting period: December to March
Crop season: Kharif

Key growing regions:

Gujarat – Deesa, Mehsana, Banaskanth, Patan, Palanpur
Rajasthan – Pali, Jodhpur, Hanumangarh
Andhra Pradesh – Kurnool, Rangareddy
Telangana – Mahbubnagar, Warangal

Production trend and Stock position:

According to Ministry of Agriculture, the sowing acreage of Castor seed as on September 18, 2020 was 7.74 lakh hectares (lh) down by 14.95 percent compared to 9.10 lh during the corresponding period.
According to Government of Gujarat, the sowing acreage as on October 5, 2020 was 6.33 lakh hectares (lh) down by 14.11 percentage compared to 7.37 lh in the corresponding period.
As per the Ministry of Agriculture first advance estimate released on September 22, 2020, Castor seed production was 17.24 lakh tonne (LMT) compared to FY 2019-20 which was 18.49 LMT, down by 6.76 percent.
Stock positions of Castor Seed were up by 19.88 percent held at National Commodity Clearing Limited (NCCL) approved warehouses at Bhabhar, Deesa, Kadi and Patan locations. The stocks held as on September 3, 2020 was 15,265 MT compared to 18,300 MT as on October 11, 2020
Castor seed is generally sown when rainfall is lower than average, but this year monsoon arrived early during the second week of June 2020 as predicted by IMD. Due to these pre-monsoon rains and high water levels, it helped farmers sow other crops than Castor seed and even the price sentiments were weak during this sowing period which added to its digression.

Monsoon Update

For the country as a whole, Seasonal cumulative rainfall during this year’s southwest monsoon season upto September 30, 2020 was above Long Period Average (LPA) by +9%. Details of the rainfall distribution over the four broad geographical regions of India are given below:

Table 1: Seasonal Rainfall Scenario for Monsoon Season of 2020 from June 1 to September 30, 2020