Indian mustard and its oil is used for culinary purpose. After soybean and palm oil, it is third important oilseed in the world. Young leaves are used for vegetable purpose. Its oil cake is used for feeding cattle. It is grown in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, UP, Haryana and Gujarat also in some areas of south like Andra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Varieties and hybrids
Kranti, Varuna, Rohini, Pusa gold, Laxmi, Vasundara, Ashirvad, Basanti, Pusa jai kisan, NRC-HB-506, NRCHB-506, NRCHB-101, TL-15, TL-17
Climate
It requires a temperature of 22-25 degrees and rainfall of 25-40cm.
Land Preparation
One ploughing three to four harrowings, followed by leveling are sufficient to prepare land to desired tilth.
Time of sowing
Optimum time for sowing Mustard crop is from September to October month.
Seed rate
When mustards are grown individually then it required seed rate of 1.5 kg seeds per acre. Do thinning operations three week after sowing and maintain only healthy seedlings.
Seed treatment
To protect seed from soil borne pest and disease, before sowing do seed treatment with Thiram@3gm per kg of seeds.
Method of sowing
Seed crop should be sown in rows. The depth of seeding should not be more than 3 cm.
Manures and fertilizers
While preparing field, apply 70 to 120 qtl farm yard manure or well decomposed cow dung in soil. For accurate fertilizer dose, soil testing is necessary. Under irrigated condition for toria crop, apply N:P in ratio of 25:8kg/acre in form of Urea@55kg/acre and Super phosphate@50kg/acre. Apply K dose only when soil show deficiency of it. For raya and gobhi sarson, apply N:P:K in ratio of 40:12:6 kg/acre in form of Urea@90kg, SSP@75kg and MOP@10kg per acre. For rainfed raya crop apply Urea@33kg/acre and Super Phosphate@50kg/acre.
Apply Urea just before pre-sowing irrigation. Under irrigated condition, for toria apply all fertilizer just before sowing and for raya, gobhi sarson, apply half of fertilizer just before sowing and remaining half with first irrigation. For rainfed condition, give all fertilizer just before sowing.
Weed Management
To control weeds take two to three weeding and two hoeing at interval of two weeks when intensity of weeds is low. To control weeds in Toria crop, do pre-plant incorporation of Trifluralin @ 400ml/200Ltrs of water per acre. For raya crop, give pre-emergence spray of Isoproturon @ 400gm/200Ltr within 2 days of sowing. Or take post emergence spray 25-30 days after sowing. One hand weeding when the plants are 15 to 20cm high is required
Irrigation
One presowing irrigation and one at flowering and pod formation is recommended for obtaining higher seed yields.
Harvesting
It is important to harvest seed crop soon after plants start turning a light yellow. At this stage most of the siliqua are light yellow and the seed inside the siliqua light brown. After harvesting, the crop should be left in the field in small bundles for two to three days to dry in the field, or the bundles may be brought to threshing floor and completely dried there. After plants have been well dried, threshing can be done by bullocks, tractor or flailed with sticks. Before storage, dry seeds to reduce moisture content to eight per cent.
Yield
We can obtain good yields upto 15 to 20 qt/ha