CALCUTTA, 10/8/2001(Financial Times) - An indifferent monsoon anddiversion of land to more lucrative crops have led to India's lowestoilseed harvest in a decade.This is expected to make the country a large buyer of vegetable oils inthe coming weeks.According to trade officials, India's vegetable oil imports (mainly palm,soyabean and sunflower oil) in the current season will jump to nearly 5mtonnes from 4.5m tonnes in 1999/2000.The Indian federal government is concerned about the fall in oilseedproduction from a record 24.7m tonnes in 1998/99 to 17.37m tonnes in theyear starting in November 2000 and ending this month.The fall will give imports a share of nearly half the country's vegetableoils market.Farm officials said the setback in the oilseed crop was the result of afall in the area under cultivation in the current season, together with"moisture stress" in many growing centres last month coinciding withflowering and pod formation."In the last 10 years, the minimum support prices for wheat and rice wereup 2.5 times, against 1.7 times for oilseeds. This has caused alarge-scale diversion of land from oilseeds to other crops," said anofficial.The country is facing the peculiar situation of having wheat and ricestocks of nearly 62m tonnes, compared with a "food security" requirementof 25m tonnes, while poor oilseed production is triggering large importsof vegetable oils.JNL Srivastava, agriculture secretary, said the anomaly would be correctedby a combination of getting more land under oilseed cultivation,productivity improvements and contract farming.Farm officials say it should be possible to lift oilseed production by upto 40 per cent because, at about 900kg a hectare, Indian oilseedproductivity is currently half the world average."Give the farmers high-yielding and pest and drought-resistant seeds andtechnology and they will usher in a revolution in oilseed production,"said Ashok Sethia, a leading importer.