Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a new scheme to make India self-sufficient in cooking oils. Touted as National Edible Oil Mission-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP), the new system will help the country to increase the domestic production of edible oil. “Due to the heavy dependence on imports for edible oils, it is important to make efforts for increasing the domestic production of edible oils in which increasing area and productivity of oil palm plays an important part,” Union Cabinet said in a statement. The central government will invest Rs 11,040 crore in this new ecosystem. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier announced this new plan.
The centrally-backed scheme will also help to increase the capital investment in the oil-producing ecosystem in India. Along with that, it will also generate employment and increase income of farmers. “A financial outlay of Rs 11,040 crore has been made for the scheme, out of which Rs 8,844 crore is the Government of India share and Rs 2,196 crore is State share and this includes the viability gap funding also,” the statement added.
It must be mentioned that India depends largely on the imports to meet the domestic oil demand. The country produces 2.4 crore tonnes of edible oil that it consumes annually. It imports the rest from the world to meet the demand — palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia, soyoil from Brazil and Argentina, and sunflower oil, mainly from Russia and Ukraine. Out of the total import, palm oil constitutes about 55 per cent.
At present, palm oil is the world’s most consumed vegetable oil and India is the largest consumer of vegetable oil in the world. The major edible oils consumed in India include mustard, soyabean, groundnut, sunflower sesame oil, niger seed, safflower seed, castor and linseed (primary source) and coconut, palm oil, cottonseed, rice bran, solvent extracted oil, tree and forest origin oil. “When India is emerging as a major exporter of farm goods, we should not depend on imports for our edible oil requirements,” Modi said.
This new ecosystem plan will help the government to reduce the rising price of domestic edible oil. The scheme will focus on increasing area and productivity of oil seeds and oil palm. The prime minister said the government will ensure that farmers get all facilities, from quality seeds to technology to promote farming to produce palm oil and other oil seeds. The new scheme will focus on the north east region and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
In July, the central government reduced the duty charged on crude palm oil. To bring some relief to the consumers amid rising inflation, the Union government cut the duty charges on crude palm oil by 5 per cent.
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