Jayant Agro-Organics Ltd chairman Abhay Udesh
Jayant Agro-Organics Ltd (JAOL), a leading global oleochemical company, is working on a short-duration castor variety in collaboration with various institutes, its chairman Abhay Udeshi said.“We have a good interaction with the institutes like the Indian Institute of Oilseed Research (IIOR)-ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research), and we work with universities such as the Sardar Dantiwada University, which is primary for castor. We tell them what our requirement is. Nowadays, we have been talking about short duration because castor is a long duration crop,” Udeshi told businessline in an online interaction.JAOL’s outlook was that if scientists could work on short-duration crops, farmers would be encouraged to increase the area under castorseed. “We have to ensure that the farmer is always interested in castor. We work on the development of hybrid seeds, and then we multiply them and take them to the farmer,” he said.‘King of deserts’Castor is sown during July-August and harvested after January, extending till April. It is a challenging non-edible crop to grow. However, castor is a “king of deserts or barren lands”. It is important to assure the farmer if they grow castor, they will be better off, unlike other crops, which may be affected or damaged by weather developments. “Castor is a sturdy crop. We focus on informing farmers that it is an insurance crop,” said Udeshi, whose father pioneered the technology to crush castorseed in 1952.Jayant Agro, which went public in 1993 after being set up in 1992, has been involved in bringing out Gujarat castor varieties. It began with the variety GCH 1, and currently, GCH 9 has been released.A variety’s life period is about 10 years, and it has to yield its place to another. Pests and insects develop resistance as the variety ages.Yield up 4 timesThough JAOL buys castorseed mainly through traders, it has begun to associate itself with farmers. “Since the early 1990s, we have been investing our time and resources with the farmers at the Sardar Dantiwada University and explaining to farmers about good agricultural practices to get a better yield,” said Udeshi. From a yield of 600-700 kg per hectare, today it has increased to 2.-2.5 tonnes. JAOL works with farmers through different initiatives. It is engaged in a project on sustainability in castor through SuCCESS Code. It has launched its own I-Pragati (Ishedu) on sustainability, reaching about 15,000 farmers. The company assures them that it is always a buyer of castor seeds year-round, he said.The Mumbai-based firm makes hybrid seeds for sowing and sells them to farmers. It takes the help of universities to make foundation seeds, which crushing is done by its subsidiary Ishedu (the reverse of Udeshi) Agro-Chem Private Ltd. Ishedu is a joint venture with French company Arkema, the largest user of castor oil. “The French company took a stake in our company to secure their oil needs,” said the company’s chairman. Target for next 5 yearsCastorseed yield in the country is 2.4-2.5 tonnes per hectare, but on its demo farms, Jayant Agro has been able to increase the yield to 6-7 tonnes. Farming practices are very important, and farmers need to be imparted knowledge at the right time and reminded to carry out crop care activities, said the JAOL chairman.On an all-India basis, the target should be to increase the yield to 3 tonnes in the next 5-10 years. On production this year, Udeshi said erratic monsoon and heat waves affected yield, and it could be 2.1-2.2 hectares per hectare. “We are expecting the crop this year anywhere between 16.5 and 17.5 lakh tonnes,” he said, adding that two weeks ago, the output was scaled down to 16 lakh tonnes. On the emergence of El Nino weather, he said the monsoon was not promising, but castor, being a sturdier crop, could result in more farmers planting the oilseed as it is a “reliable insurance” for them.Published on July 1, 2026
