Major oils seed crops grown in India: Mustard, groundnut, soybean and sunflower 

Cultivation of mustard

Soil and Climatic requirements: Mustard is basically cultivated in temperate region, require an annual precipitation of 40-100 cm. Soil sandy loam with no water-logging. 

Varieties: Some promising varieties of mustard are as under:

Seed and sowing method: For irrigated condition, 3-4 kg seed is sufficient for sowing of one ha area whereas, the seed rate can be increased to 5 kg/ha under rainfed condition. 

25^th September to the first fortnight of October is the most appropriate time of sowing mustard crop in conserved moisture.

Nutrient requirements: For rainfed crop, apply 40 kg N and 20 kg P2O5/ha. In irrigated areas apply 60 kg N, 20 kg P2O5 and 25 kg K2O/ha

Major diseases & management

White rust Downy mildew and Alternaria blight are major diseases of mustard. For the control of white rust, Alternaria and downy mildew spray Mancozeb 1.5 kg/ha at initial appearance of white rust or Alternaria and repeat the spray 1-3 times after 15 days.

Pest management 

Mustard aphid is major pest of mustard. Spray the crop with 625 to 1000 ml oxydemeton methyl (Metasystox 25 EC) or dimethoate (Rogor) 30 EC after diluting it in 625 to 1000 L water/ha.

Harvesting, threshing and yield 

Usually rapeseed-mustard crops are harvested as soon as 75% of the pods turn yellow and moisture content of the seed is around 30 to 40%. Under normal conditions, rapeseed yields about 1.4-2.0 t/ha of seed, while mustard may give 2.0-2.5 t/ha.