Abstract

                                The international situation brought about by the present war has, among other things, affected the export trade of most of the countries of the world due to the closure of foreign markets resulting in an upset of agricultural economy. The situation is particularly embarassing to a country like India which is essentially a producer of raw materials entirely dependent upon other countries for the disposal of most of its agricultural produce. Of the many such products produced in the country on a large scale and marketed elsewhere groundnut figures prominently. In spite of the offer of the United Kingdom to purchase all its require- ments of oil seeds from India and attempts being made to explore new markets, the total production of groundnut in this country is bound to leave a surplus for which use has to be found. Restriction in area can be done only to a certain extent, for groundnut is a crop that is easily raised in the poor dry lands of the Province with little investment or care and is one of the few attractive crops for the dryland farmer. It becomes, therefore, necessary to absorb this anticipated excess production in the country itself by developing the Indian oil-seed crushing industry on a sound and planned basis and utilizing the oil and the residual cake (poonac).

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