Different oil seeds are grown covering approximately 12 per cent of the total cropped area of the country. Main oil-seeds produced in India are groundnut, mustard, coconut, sesamum (til), soyabean, castor seeds, cotton seeds, linseed and sunflower. Most of these are edible and used as cooking mediums. However, some of these are also used as raw material in the production of soap, cosmetics and ointments. Groundnut is a kharif crop and accounts for about half of the major oilseeds produced in the country. Gujarat was the largest producer of groundnut followed by Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh in 2016–17. Linseed and mustard are rabi crops. Sesamum is a kharif crop in north and rabi crop in south India. Castor seed is grown both as rabi and kharif crop. In 2016 India was the second largest producer of groundnut in the world after china. In rapeseed production India was third largest producer in the world after Canada and China in 2016.

Peanut-An oilseed in India _{Image Courtesy: Wikipedia}

Oilseeds in India

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Which is the largest producer of groundnut in the world?