Srinagar, Mar 24 : With mustard blossoms in full bloom, farmers in Kashmir are hopeful of bumper mustard crop this year due to timely rain.

Mustard crop is cultivated during winter in an estimated 60 thousand hectares of paddy fields in the Kashmir valley, which according to an estimate is about 40 percent of the total area under paddy.

The crop is sown in September-October after paddy is harvested. As temperatures rise after winter, rapeseed-mustard crop blossoms and is harvested towards the end of May.

Following sufficient snowfall and rains this winter, the farmers hope to get a better crop than the pervious year when the yield was less than 40,000 metric tonnes.

"This year it has rained properly so the mustard crop will be good. For the last four years it was not raining properly that''''s why we were not getting good mustard crop," said Mushtaq, a farmer.

Abdul Majeed, Joint Director Agriculture said that the production this year is expected to exceed 80,000 metric tonnes due to good weather conditions.

"Last year the production was less than 50 percent. But this year I''''m hopeful that it will be over 80,000 metric tones," said Majeed added.

India, China, Canada, Poland, France and Pakistan are major rapeseed-mustard growing countries. India, according to a survey, has nearly 4.5 million hectares under mustard production. (ANI)