Oil seeds constitute a very important group of commercial crops in India. The oil extracted from oil seeds form an important item of our diet and are used as raw materials for manufacturing large number of items like paints, varnishes, hydrogenated oil, soaps, perfumery, lubricants, etc. Oil-cake which is the residue after the oil is extracted from the oil seeds, forms an important cattle-feed and manure.

India has the largest area and production of oil seeds in the world. Five major oil seeds viz., groundnut, sesame, rapeseed and mustard, linseed and castor seed occupy almost 15 percent of the net area shown in India.

If the area occupied by other oil seeds such as soyabean, cotton seed, sunflower, safflower and niger seed is also included, the total area occupied by oil seeds becomes about 20 per cent of the net area sown. It must, however, be noted that the production of oil seeds has always fallen short of our demand and there has always been a need to import oil seeds or their products for meeting the demand of our ever-growing population.

With limited scope of bringing additional area under oil seeds, increase in oil seed production will have to come primarily from land saving to technologies highlighting a combination of high yield plant type, standard crop management practices and balanced crop nutrition.

Indian Oil Seed Market:
A wide range of oilseed crops are produced in different agro-climatic regions of the country. Three main oilseeds namely, groundnut, soybean, and rapeseed-mustard accounted for over 88% of total oilseeds output. Soybean is the most important crop grown mainly in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan accounting for more than 95% of total production. The second most important oilseed crop is rapeseed-mustard mainly grown in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Gujarat with an estimated share of about 93% in total production in the country. Groundnut, which was the largest oilseed crop in the 1990s, lost its share and is now third important oilseed and grown in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Maharashtra with a combined share of about 91% in total groundnut production in the country.