One successful achievement of Madhya Pradesh is the soyabean crop. By 1980 Madhya Pradesh was hardly growing 1.00 lakh hectares of soyabean. In the last 18 years the area under soyabean has gone up to 4.4 million hectares.

Earlier, the yields were five to seven quintals per hectare now the average yields have been 9 to 11 quintals per hectare over such a large area. Madhya Pradesh has 85 per cent of the total soyabean cultivated in India and most of this area is in western and central Madhya Pradesh consisting of 25 to 30 districts. Because of the growth of soyabean, new solvent extraction plants have come up in Madhya Pradesh, providing large employment. Export of deoiled cake is giving us large foreign exchange. Food habits of people in MP and north India have been changed because they are using soyabean oil plusother products of soyabean. Thus a total revolution has been achieved which needs to be understood and appreciated.

MP government has taken several steps to encourage growing of soyabean. It has guided farmers in correct way of raising soyabean, helped in developing new varieties which are high yielding, encouraged formation of exclusive mandis for soyabean storage and sale, given the freedom to farmers to sell the material at suitable time so that they can get best prices. All these steps have not only permitted rapid growth of this crop but also provided healthy cost benefit ratio to the farmers. With a yield of 10 quintals per hectare farmers are assured of return of Rs 9,000 to Rs 10,000 per hectare against expenses of Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,500 per hectare. The cost benefit ratio is 1:3 or 3.5, which is very lucrative.

Because of soyabean, double cropping has been established in western and central Madhya Pradesh, providing better land utilisation. Soyabean can be followed by rabi like gram, pea or wheat.The soil conditions of western Madhya Pradesh are tailor made for soyabean cultivation. Soyabean is particularly sensitive to water logging, which does not normally occur in western Madhya Pradesh. It can thrive on 400 mm to 600 mm of well distributed rainfall which is available in western me and soyabean needs bright sunshine at the time of ripening which generally comes up during second half of September or early October.

The fertiliser use practices have tremendously changed in MP due to soyabean and use of phosphatic fertiliser particularly material containing sulphur has increased rapidly. This has paved way for setting up of new factories in western Madhya Pradesh or adjoining areas of Rajasthan. The consumption of single super phosphate has more than doubled during last 10 years in this area due mainly to soyabean.

There is no doubt that area under this crop in MP can further increase and go to a level of 6.0 to 7.0 million hectares in the coming years. However, greater emphasis has to be nowplaced on further increasing the per hectare yields to a level of 15 to 20 quintals per hectare which will permit harvest if 7.0 to 9.0 million tonnes from a present level of 5.0 million tonnes. For this purpose varieties which can withstand water logging need to be developed. Greater mandi facility would be necessary. In some of the districts like Dhar the yields of soyabean are 2.5 to 3.0 tonnes per hectare on an average due to favourable climate and cultivator's enterprise. This experience needs to be shared with other farmers to increase average yields elsewhere. The harvesting technology and post harvest packing, transport and storage has to be further improved perhaps by providing mechanical harvest facilities to avoid last minute losses due too untimely rains as happened this year.

Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh can copy the Madhya Pradesh model of soyabean growth and cultivation in a big way. Maharashtra is already growing six to nine lakh hectares of soyabean but the yields arenot adequate. Moreover, growing soyabean in districts like Sangli and Sholapur has not been a good experience because copious rains have contributed to the manifestation of diseases and yields have been poor. A proper plan of growing soyabean in Vidarbha, Khandesh and parts of Marathwada has to be worked out along with supporting marketing system and development of solvent extraction plants.

In Gujarat, soyabean can come up very well in central Gujarat as well as parts of Saurashtra. Gujarat already has solvent extraction plants which can be better utilised because groundnut yields are not adequate. Southern Rajasthan can take up soyabean cultivation in a big way along with Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh.

It is possible to increase soyabean cultivation to the extent of 10.00 million hectares in India and obtain total production in the range of 12 to 15 million tonnes as against current production of 5 million tonnes. This will provide more assured returns to the farmers, help in replacing crops likebajra which are giving poor yields, increase our national oil and protein production and help in reducing our dependence on imported oil.

Meanwhile, let us appreciate the excellent work done by the Madhya Pradesh government.