The agriculture department is holding as many as 1000 field demonstrations this year to popularise the new variety of seed in Rajasthan with the target of distributing 2200 mini-kits of seed this year.

Talking to The Financial Express, director of agriculture, PM Agarwal said that the farmers had started taking up cultivation of fenugreek in large scale in their fields by using the new variety rmt 1. The latter was hopeful to modify the variety of seed further so that the production time was reduced.

Though the department had projected the fenugreek area to rise to 35,000 hectares in the last rabi season giving aproduction of 42,000 tonnes of (fenugreek), late rains and the erratic behaviour of monsoon had affected the crop to a large extent. This is the reason why the traders expect a sharp rise in the ruling prices of fenugreek this year as against the previous year.

In the known mandis of Rajasthan such as Bhiwani, Kotah, Pratapgarh, Neemahera, etc, the arrivals of fenugreek this year are on the lower side sending indications of a rise in the prices after some time.

Already the prices have risen to Rs 1400 per quintal to Rs 1700 per quintal, informs M K Rara, a leading trader. When the new crop had begun to hit the mandis in February last, the price range was between Rs 1100 per quintal to Rs 1300 per quintal.

Rara said that last year the prices had ranged from Rs 1000 per quintal to Rs 1300 per quintal as the crop was certainly better. But the picture this year was somewhat different.

According to Agarwal, the production of fenugreek in Rajasthan during 1990-91 was 33,694 tonnes falling to 21,164 tonnesin the following year. During the crop year 1992-93 it rose to 25,372 tonnes going up to 30,178 tonnes in the following year. ``The production has not been steady,''admits Agarwal. The year 1995-96 was by far the best with the record production of 48,178 tonnes of fenugreek covering a total area of 38,206 hectares. From Rajasthan alone the total exports of fenugreek during the year were to the tune of Rs 185 crore. In a normal year the state had the exportable surplus of 20,000 tonnes.

Sikar was the large producing district of fenugreek in Rajasthan - last year it produced 15,000 tonnes followed by Pali, Nagaur, Alwar, Jhalawar. The crop has to be irrigated.

Barley output up 43%

May 3: Barley production in the state is estimated to have jumped a whopping 43 per cent this year to touch 5.56 lakh tonnes as against 3.78 lakh tonnes last year.

Barley crop covered a total area of 2.83 lakh hectares against 1.89 lakh hectares last year.

P Agarwal director of agriculture in Rajasthan, said theincrease in production was largely due to use of a new variety seed, RD 3035, developed by the Rajasthan Agriculture University (of barley). The university had also developed yet another variety of barley seed, (RD 2052), earlier.

Agarwal told The Financial Express that the new variety seed gave around 40 quintals of barley per hectare as against an average output of 30 quintals given by the conventional Rd 103 variety. With harvesting underway, the new crop has started arriving in Rajasthan mandies. Rajasthan is the second largest barley-producing state in the country.

In the state's known mandies barley is sold in a range of Rs 430 to Rs 440 per quintal as against Rs 450 to Rs 475 per quintal when the crop started coming in. A few days ago the price varied between Rs 380 to Rs 385 per quintal.

Traders expect a fall in barley prices this year due to the high production level. The decline will start when the new crop begins to arrive in full measure. About 1,000 bags of barley have been hittingthe mandies in Jaipur every day but marketmen expect this to go up sharply soon.

Barley is used in the manufacture of beer and a large number of beer plants have come up in Rajasthan. Due to the fine colour of barley grown in this region there is a marked rise for its demand among beer manufacturers.

Jaipur division is the largest barley-producing region in Rajasthan - this year, the region's contribution to the total barley production in the state is expected to be in the range of 2.71 lakh tonnes.

As returns are comparatively high, farmers have even switched over to barley from the traditional wheat.

Agarwal says that a detailed study will be made by the department to find out how the area under barley crop could be increased to achieve a further rise in its production. An increased demand for barley has been seen even in the rest of the country.