By Satyaki Paul
Recently, the Union Cabinet chaired by Hon’ble PM Modi gave his assent to the National Mission on Edible Oils—Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) as a new Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS). So, the funding will be coordinated between the States and Centre.
The objectives of the Oil Palm Mission are multifaceted. This involves in the increase of area under Palm Oil cultivation from 3 lakh hectares to an additional 6.5 lakh hectares. Production of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) is expected to increase to 11.20 lakh tonnes by 2025-26. The focus area revolves around: price assurance to the farmers to protect them from volatility in the prices of Crude Palm oil; assistance to the farmers for buying various inputs such as planting material; special emphasis on the North-eastern States and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
In Indian context, the list of Oilseeds consists of 9-oilseeds which are considered as the primary source of vegetable oils in the country i.e., Soybean, Groundnut, Rape seed and Mustard, Sunflower, Safflower, Sesame, Niger, Castor, and Linseed. And, the area under Oilseeds is 27 Mha (14% of agriculture area). It has remained almost stagnant (with slight variation) both in terms of absolute area as well as percentage of area under agriculture. Furthermore, the overall production of Oilseeds has neither consistently increased nor decreased i.e., 30 MT (for the last decade). In current context, the production of oilseed is around 33MT for the fiscal year 2019-20.
There is also a demand-supply mismatch of edible oils where the domestic requirements are around 25 MT; while the domestic Production is around 10 MT from primary sources (Soybean, Groundnut, Sunflower, etc.) and Secondary sources (Palm oil, coconut, rice bran, cotton seeds etc). And, the remaining 60% of requirement is met through imports.
So, in spite being the fifth largest oilseed crop producing country in the world, India is also one of the largest importers of vegetable oils. This is a conundrum which hurts the import bill of our country wherein the import bill could go up to Rs. 1 lac crores for the present year. In this context, new mission would aid in digressing the current situation from going out of hand.
Apart from the aforesaid Mission, the Union Government had taken up numerous initiatives to boost oilseeds production such as: (i) National Food Security Mission (NFSM)-Oilseeds & Oil Palm: This mission would aid in distribution of quality seeds, improved technologies, distribution of micronutrients, etc; (ii) Increase in the import duties on vegetable oils; (iii) Increase in the MSP on oilseeds; and (iv) Guaranteed procurement through PM-AASHA. Furthermore, special focus is also given to Targeting Rice Fallow Areas (TRFA) for cultivation of Pulses and Oilseeds. In such practices, once the rice is harvested, residual moisture left in the soil is sufficient to grow pulses and oilseeds. Thus, in such practices we can conclude that introduction of pulses and oilseeds in rice fallows will not only increase production of pulses and oilseeds, but it will also lead to doubling farmers income by 2022.