நிலக்கடலை: India's largest kharif oilseed
Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) is grown on roughly 6.0 million hectares producing about 10.4 million tonnes (DES 2024-25), making it India's largest kharif oilseed by output. Gujarat alone accounts for 42% of national production, concentrated in the Saurashtra peninsula (Junagadh, Rajkot, Amreli, Jamnagar, Porbandar). The 2025-26 MSP is ₹7,263/q (PIB 28 May 2025), and NAFED PSS procurement reached ~16 LMT in 2024-25 — the largest oilseed procurement on record. Beyond oil pressing (~70% of crop), groundnut serves the snack-confectionery market (peanut butter, roasted-salted) and the export market for India's white-Bold and Java segregations.
State geography of groundnut
Gujarat (42%): Saurashtra peninsula — Junagadh, Rajkot, Amreli, Jamnagar, Porbandar, Bhavnagar. Light medium-black soils, rainfed (~600 mm SW monsoon). Yields 18-28 q/ha rainfed depending on monsoon. GG-20 and GJG-9 dominant. Junagadh APMC is the national groundnut price-discovery centre.
Rajasthan (15%): Jaipur, Tonk, Bikaner kharif rainfed groundnut on sandy loams. Yields 12-18 q/ha. Mostly Spanish bunch types for oil.
Andhra Pradesh (9%): Anantapur, Kurnool, Chittoor — the AP dryland belt with the lowest yields nationally (8-12 q/ha rainfed). Kadiri-6 and ICGV-91114 dominant. APMC Kadiri.
Karnataka (8%): Chitradurga, Tumakuru kharif + rabi groundnut. TG-37A (Thiruvananthapuram-37A) widely grown.
Tamil Nadu (7%): Vellore, Tiruvannamalai irrigated rabi groundnut. VRI-2 (Veerendrapatti Research Institute) popular.
Madhya Pradesh (5%): Khargone, Khandwa kharif rainfed.
Variety pipeline — Spanish bunch, Virginia bunch, Virginia runner
Three botanical types matter: Spanish bunch (95-105 days, short erect, 2-seeded pod, mostly for oil), Virginia bunch (105-115 days, semi-erect, 2-3 seeded pod, dual-purpose), and Virginia runner (110-130 days, prostrate, large 2-seeded pod, premium HPS export).GG-20 (JAU Junagadh, 1998) — Spanish bunch, 28 q/ha potential, 110-115 days, Gujarat workhorse. GJG-9 (JAU Junagadh, 2009) — Spanish bunch, 30 q/ha potential. TG-37A (BARC Mumbai, 2004) — Spanish bunch mutation-bred, 25 q/ha. ICGV-91114 (ICRISAT, 2004) — early-maturing (95-day) drought-tolerant, AP-Anantapur dryland favourite. Kadiri-6(ANGRAU Kadiri, 2002) — Spanish bunch, 27 q/ha, AP/TS popular. Aflatoxin-resistance breeding is ongoing at ICRISAT — three lines in advanced trial.
Agronomy — kharif rainfed dominates, rabi/zaid irrigated
Kharif sowing: June 15 to July 15 with monsoon establishment. Rabi/zaid sowing: November 15 to December 15 in AP/TN/KA on irrigated lands. Seed rate is high — 100-125 kg/ha at 30 × 10 cm for Spanish bunch types — because each plant produces only 15-25 pods. Seed treatment with carbendazim 50WP 2 g/kg controls collar rot (Aspergillus niger). Nutrient requirement: 25:50:40 NPK kg/ha plus 25 kg/ha calcium via gypsum (groundnut pegs need free Ca for pod-fill; this is the most yield-sensitive single input). Sulphur 30 kg/ha responds in light soils. Zinc 25 kg/ha in alluvium. Irrigation: rainfed kharif depends on monsoon; irrigated rabi/zaid needs 6-8 irrigations on 12-day interval. The FAO-56 Kc (0.40 / 1.15 / 0.60) gives seasonal ETc of ~520 mm.
Pegging-stage water is critical
Groundnut's pegging stage (40-60 DAS) is the single most water-sensitive window. Drought stress at pegging cuts yield 30-50%; the same drought 20 days earlier (at tillering) cuts only 10-15%. Gujarat-Saurashtra's 2023-24 partial monsoon failure cut kharif groundnut output ~25% precisely because the August dry spell coincided with pegging — a recurring vulnerability of rainfed Saurashtra groundnut that drip irrigation under PMKSY-Micro Irrigation is gradually addressing.
Pest and disease management
Tikka leaf spot (Cercospora arachidicola early; Phaeoisariopsis personata late) is the dominant fungal threat — defoliates the crop pre-harvest, cuts yield 15-30%. Mancozeb 2.5 g/L at 75 DAS + Chlorothalonil 2 g/L at 90 DAS standard schedule. Rust (Puccinia arachidis) emerges in humid years; propiconazole 25EC controls. Leaf miner (Aproaerema modicella) and white grub (Holotrichia consanguinea root grub) need IPM monitoring — phorate 10G at 25 kg/ha at sowing controls grubs; chlorpyriphos 20EC sprays handle miners.
Aflatoxin (Aspergillus flavus mycotoxin contamination) is India's groundnut export-quality bottleneck. EU MRL is 4 μg/kg; Indian Gujarat HPS lots often exceed this in monsoon-stressed years, costing ₹500-800/q on exportable lots. Pre-harvest moisture management (avoiding pod-fill drought), prompt curing to below 8% moisture, and good storage hygiene are the IPM controls.
Cost of cultivation, NAFED PSS and the import policy
CACP places groundnut C2 cost at ~₹5,200-5,800/q (2022-23 crop year). Against MSP ₹7,263/q, C2 margin is ~25-40%. Junagadh APMC modal prices through November-February typically range ₹5,800-7,200/q with grade-A bold sortex-cleaned HPS lots fetching ₹8,500-10,000/q for export. NAFED PSS at MSP active in GJ, AP, RJ. Edible-oil duty policy is the dominant non-MSP price determinant: India imports palm and soy oil at zero/concessional duty, which suppresses domestic oilseed prices including groundnut by ~₹400-600/q.
A Junagadh GJ farmer with 2 ha GG-20 kharif rainfed groundnut yielding 22 q/ha at ₹6,800/q PSS: gross ₹2,99,200, cash cost ~₹46,000, net cash margin ₹2,53,200 (~₹51,000/acre). Irrigated rabi groundnut with TG-37A yielding 28 q/ha at ₹7,000/q: margin can cross ₹60,000/acre with sulphur-fertilised oil-quality premium.
Schemes and NMEO-Oilseeds
NMEO-OS targets adding 0.5 million hectares of new groundnut area by 2030, primarily via short-duration ICGV-91114 in AP-Anantapur and rabi groundnut in TN-Vellore via drip irrigation expansion. NFSM-Oilseeds & Oil Palm provides seed mini-kits, drip irrigation subsidy (PMKSY 55% subsidy on micro-irrigation), and FPO-led oil extraction units. Gujarat's Mukhyamantri Krishi Sahay Yojana provides additional ₹3,000/ha to small farmers. PM-KISAN, PMFBY (2% kharif premium) and KCC apply standardly.
Drip-fertigation and the path to 25 q/ha national average
India's national groundnut yield (~17 q/ha) significantly lags global benchmarks (China 35 q/ha, US 45 q/ha). The yield gap closes through (i) drip fertigation under PMKSY (already deployed across ~80,000 ha in Gujarat with 30-40% yield uplift demonstrated), (ii) confidence intervals on monsoon via crop insurance reform, and (iii) HPS-grade export channels that incentivise quality-management investments at farm level. If national yield rises to 20 q/ha by 2030 — feasible — output crosses 12 MT and India's edible oil import dependency drops materially.