New Delhi, Oct. 27 -- Farmers are likely to plant more mustard this winter, helped by a higher government support price and a need to buy less cooking oil from abroad.

The mustard area under cultivation in the ongoing 2026-27 rabi season is projected to touch 9.50 million hectares, against 9.42 million a year before, said Vijay Veer Singh, director at the ICAR-Indian Institute of Rapeseed-Mustard Research in Bharatpur, Rajasthan, the country's biggest mustard-producing state. Better seeds and hybrid varieties should help farmers grow more on each hectare.

The timing is important as India buys about 60% of its edible oil from other countries, and the war in West Asia has made those imports costlier and harder to ship.

Even if yields sta...