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43 per cent growth in oilseed production since 2015-16, says Economic Survey.
Feb 01, 2022

The country’s oilseed production has gone up by 43 per cent between 2015-16 and 2020-21.

The Economic Survey for 2021-22 said oilseed production in India has steadily increased from 2016-17 onwards. It was showing a fluctuating trend prior to that.

The fourth advanced estimates data from the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, which is available in the Economic Survey, showed that oilseed production in the country was at 25.3 million tonnes (mt) in 2015-16. It went up to 31.3 mt in 2016-17, and 31.5 mt in 2017-18 and 2018-19. It picked up further and went up to 33.2 mt in 2019-20, and 36.1 mt in 2020-21.

Demand up

The Economic Survey also noted that the oil production in India has, however, lagged behind its consumption necessitating import of edible oils.

While the edible oil production in the country increased from 6.1 mt in 2015-16 to 7.9 mt in 2019-20, the import of oil increased from 14.9 mt in 2015-16 to 15.6 mt in 2018-19, before coming down to 13.4 mt in 2019-20.

The survey noted that as urbanisation increases in developing countries, dietary habits and traditional meal patterns are expected to shift towards processed foods that have a high content of vegetable oil.

'Vegetable oil consumption in India is, therefore, expected to remain high due to high population growth and consequent urbanisation. As per the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2021-2030, India is projected to maintain a high per capita vegetable oil consumption growth of 2.6 per cent per annum reaching 14 kg/capita by 2030, necessitating a high import growth of 3.4 per cent per annum,' it said.

Oilseed Mission

Considering the persistently high import of edible oil, increase in oil production has been a priority for the government. It said the government has been promoting the production and productivity of oilseeds through the Centrally sponsored scheme of National Food Security Mission: Oilseeds (NFSM-Oilseeds) from 2018-19 onwards in all districts of India.

In August 2021, National Mission on Edible Oils - Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) was launched to augment the availability of edible oil in the country by harnessing area expansion and through price incentives. Under the scheme, for the first time, the government is giving a price assurance to the oil palm farmers for the fresh fruit bunches (FFBs). This will be known as the viability price which will protect the farmers from the fluctuations of the international crude palm oil (CPO) prices, it said.

Crude palm oil

Mentioning that India has enormous potential for cultivation of oil palm and production of CPO, the Survey said oil palm produces 10-46 times more oil per hectare compared to other oilseed crops. Oil palm has yield of around 4 tonnes oil per hectare.

It said the NMEO-OP may be considered a major initiative of the government given the fact that that around 98 per cent of CPO is being imported.

At present only 3.70 lakh hectares of area is under oil palm cultivation. The scheme aims to cover an additional area of 6.5 lakh hectares for oil palm till 2025-26 and thereby reach the target of 10 lakh hectares ultimately.

The scheme also targets the production of CPO to go up to 11.20 lakh tonnes by 2025-26 and up to 28 lakh tonnes by 2029-30, it said.

thehindubusinessline

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