NEW DELHI, July 19 Asia Pulse - Even with excellent monsoons and bumpercrops, there will be a 27 per cent shortfall in oilseed output against anestimated demand of 40.23 million tonnes by 2006-07, the government saidtoday.

Shortage in the current fiscal year is estimated at 9.6 million tonneseven if the monsoon revives and the crop is salvaged.

"We are perennially short of oilseeds. Last year even when the monsoon wasnormal, there was at least a shortage of 8 million tonnes in oilseeds whenbenchmarked against its demand," official sources told PTI, adding theshortfall will rise to 11 million tonnes by 2006-07.

They said possible droughts could aggravate the situation as was the casein 2002-03 when the country produced less than half of the estimateddemand for oilseeds.

According to the projections made by the Ministry of Agriculture, thetargeted production is 26.2, 27.8 and 29.4 million tonnes in 2004-05,2005-06 and 2006-07 against which the demand is projected to be 35.8, 37.9and 40.2 million tonnes respectively.

This will result in a massive 27 per cent shortage in each of the threeseasons, they added.

They said the output had been based on the projections made by the workinggroups on Crop Husbandry, Demand and Supply Projections and AgriculturalInputs and Demand Projections for Oilseed.

Oilseed imports will be nominal because the bulk of the demand is not metby imports of seeds but of edible oil, they added.