The Agro Market Intelligence and Business Promotion Centre (AMI&BPC) of the Department of Agricultural Marketing and Agri Business has indicated that the price of gingelly would remain stable during the ‘thaipattam’ harvest season.
In a price advisory, the centre said the price of red gingelly would be around Rs. 85-88 per kg during harvest period from April to May.
The price advisory was based on an analysis of the prices that prevailed in the Sivagiri Regulated Markets over the past 14 years conducted by the AMI & BPC functioning at the Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development Studies (CARDS), Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.
India is the second largest producer of gingelly in the world. The crop is widely preferred for its qualities of high drought tolerance and the high oil content in the seeds.
As per Crop Forecast Coordination Centre’s (CFCC), gingelly seed production during the kharif season in 2014-15 was 6.45 lakh tonnes. However, majority of gingelly is grown as a kharif crop in central and southern parts of the country.
In Tamil Nadu, gingelly is cultivated in a small area as a summer crop. Gingelly production was around 17,179 tonnes from an area of 33,181 hectares in 2012-13. Productivity was 613 kg a hectare. Erode, Karur, Salem, Cuddalore, Villupuram, Thanjavur, Tiruppur, Pudukottai and Tiruvannamalai were the major districts that contributed about 66 per cent of the total area and 70 per cent of the state production during 2012-13. Erode district has the highest productivity of 734 kg per hectare.
Main varieties cultivated in Tamil Nadu are TMV (SV)7, TMV-3, TMV-4, TMV-5, TMV-6, VRI (SV) 2, VRI(SV)-1,CO1 (black gingelly) and SVPR1 (white gingelly). TMV-3, TMV-4, TMV-5, TMV-6 and TMV-7 red gingelly varieties are used for oil purpose and CO-1 black gingelly variety is mainly used in confectionaries. SVPR1 (white gingelly) is exported.
