Spices and Condiments (1+1)

Origin, Distribution, Area and production

Origin and distribution
The plants of the genus Brassica are natives of the North Temperate Zone, but have passed into the sub-tropics and tropics as cold weather crops. There appear to be three major places of origin: Europe, Central and Southern Asia and China.

Area and production
Mustard occupies an area of 7.1 million hectares in the country and the production is 6.9 Mt. This crop is commonly cultivated in areas of marginal and sub-marginal productivity, either as pure, mixed or as an inter-crop. Assam, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal are the major states that have the maximum area and production in the country. Recently, the crop is also being cultivated in the northern Telangana zone of Andhra Pradesh. The crop is also grown in China, Canada and Pakistan. Although in recent years, there has been an increase in the area and production of mustard, the average productivity (977 kg/ha) of the country is quite low in comparison to the developed countries.