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• OilSeeds
• About Palm Oil
• National Mison on Edible Oil – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) aims to reduce some of the above challenges

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• Area under Oilseeds cultivation has increased from 10.7 million hectares in 1950-51 to 28.8 million hectares in 2020-21. The production of Oilseeds has also increased to 36.1 million tonnes in 2020-21. But, even now, India imports majority of its edible oil consumption.
  • As of 2019-20, India produced 7.9 million tonnes of oil and imported 13.4 million tonnes of oil. This makes India the largest importer and second largest consumer of edible oil in the world.
    • India is one of the major oilseeds growing country in the world. The production was fluctuating earlier, but since 2016-17 it has continuously grown. The production has increased to 36.1 million tonnes in 2020-21 which is 43% higher than the 2015-16 production.

• • Production of oilseeds in India in 2023 (in 1,000 tones)

– Reasons for Low Oil Seeds Production in India:

• More Focus on Wheat and Rice: Green Revolution, MSP Regime, High Yielding Varieties etc.
• Productivity and yield of oilseeds crop is low.
• Palm oil which has high productivity hasn’t grown in India
• Lack of access to improved variety of seeds (for e.g. GM varieties like DMH-11 are still not allowed to be grown commercially.
• Specialized inputs like specific fertilizers, pesticides etc. are not easily available.

» Poor Infrastructure: Inadequate irrigation facilities

– Government Initiatives to reduce the import dependency has been focused on increasing the production and productivity of oilseeds:

1. Improving the Seed Varieties: National Food Security Mission – Oil Seeds (NFSM Oilseeds)
   » A centrally sponsored scheme
   » Focused on production of foundation and certified seeds and distribution of certified seeds and seeds mini kits of latest high yielding varieties.
   » Under NFSM-Oilseeds, government of India has set up 36 oilseeds seed hubs during 2018-19 and 2019-20 with an objective to increase the availability of high yielding quality seed.
2. Incentivization of oilseeds through MSP regime.
3. National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) aimed at increasing availability of edible oil in the country by harnessing area expansion and through price incentives.
4. Asian Palm Oil Alliance (APOA): 5 Major Palm Oil Importers from Asia form alliance (Sep 2022)
   » The apex edible oil industry associations from five major palm oil importing countries of Asia – India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, BD, and Nepal – have come together to form the Asian Palm Oil Alliance (APOA), at the instance of Solidaridad Network, a specialist in sustainable agriculture. The purpose is to safeguard the economic and business interests of the palm-oil consuming countries.
5. Atmanirbhar Oil Seed Abhiyan (announced in Budget 2024-25)
   » Under this a strategy will be formulated to achieve ‘Atmanirbharta’ for oil seeds such as mustard, groundnut, sesame, soybean, and sunflower. The initiative will focus on research for high-yielding varieties, widespread adoption of modern farming
   techniques, market linkages, procurement, value addition, and crop insurance.
6. Other steps like Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayi Yojna, MSP for Oil seeds, subsidies for inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides, Training and extension programs for farmers etc. also help oil seed sector.

1) ABOUT PALM OIL

• Oil Palm Cultivation in India has significant potential due to following reasons:
  1. Increasing Demand of vegetable Oil
  2. Agro-Climatic Conditions: Oil Palm can be grown in tropical and subtropical climates of India. Regions like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, and North-eastern India are well suited for palm oil cultivation.
  3. Potential to reduce India’s import dependency: Of all the vegetable oils imported in India, Palm oil constitute around 60%.
  4. High Yield of palm oil: It produces 10 to 46 times more oil per hectare compared to other oilseed crops.
  5. Other value-added products – Other than cooking oil, Palm Kernel oil is used in cosmetics and pharmaceutical products.
  6. Increased economic opportunities and Jobs
• However, introduction of largescale oil palm cultivation has also been associated with some challenges:
  1. Deforestation and biodiversity loss: Indonesia has seen large scale deforestation and biodiversity loss to expand oil-palm cultivation.
  2. High Initial Cost: The oil palm tree takes 3-4 years to mature and start producing oil palm. This can be barrier for most Indian farmers.
  3. Price Fluctuation is also a major concern which limits the scope of
  4. High Irrigation requirement is another challenge
  5. Shortage of planting material.

2) NATIONAL MISON ON EDIBLE OIL – OIL PALM (NMEO-OP) AIMS TO REDUCE SOME OF THE ABOVE CHALLENGES.

• Launched as part of Atmanirbhar Bharat Scheme, it aims to expand India’s oil palm cultivation from around 3.5 lakh hectares to 10 lakh hectares in a phased manner. It also targets to increase crude oil production to 11.2 lakh tones by 2025-26 and upto 28 lakh tonnes by 2029-30.
• Budgetary allocation – Rs 11,040 crores (of which Rs 21,96 crore will come from states)
• To tackle High Initial cost, a substantial increase in assistance for inputs / interventions has been made: :
  • For Planting Materials for oil palms, a substantial increase from Rs 12,000/ha to
  Rs 29,000/ha has been made.
  • Substantial increase has been made for maintenance and intercropping interventions -> A special assistance @Rs 250 per plant is being given to replant old gardens for rejuvenation of old gardens.
• To tackle price fluctuation, government is also providing price assurance to palm oil farmers for the fresh fruit bunches. This is called viability price. It will protect farmers from price fluctuations in international market.
  • The VP will be annual average CPO price of the last five years adjusted to WPI Index, multiplied by 14.3%.
  • There is a sunset clause for the scheme which is 1st Nov 2037.
  • The Scheme will have special focus on north-east region and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
    • To give impetus to the NE region and Andaman, the government will additionally bear a cost of 2% of the CPO price to ensure that the farmers are paid at par with the rest of India.
• To address the issue of shortage of Planting Material in the country, seed gardens will be provided assistance upto Rs 80 lakhs for 15 ha in rest of India and Rs 100 lakhs per ha in NE India and Andaman region.
• For Environment sustainability NMEO advocates responsible cultivation practices that align with India’s National Biodiversity Action Plan. It also has provisions for investment in R&D for the development of drought resistance varieties.