National Mission for Edible Oils- Oil Palm

Why is in news? Mega Plantation Drive for Oil Palm Cultivation under National Mission for Edible Oils- Oil Palm, is being organized during month of July and August 2023 across India

With an aim to increase the oil palm production area to 10 lakh ha. and boost the Crude Palm Oil production to 11.20 lakh tonnes by 2025-26, the Government of India launched National Mission for Edible Oils- Oil Palm in August 2021.

In addition to the marked growth in production of edible oils, the Mission is also successfully leading India towards an ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’ by reducing the import burden.

Under the Mission, the State Governments along with Oil Palm processing companies have initiated a Mega Oil Palm Plantation drive from 25th July 2023 to further increase the oil palm cultivation in the country.

Three major oil palm processing companies, namely, Patanjali Food Pvt. Ltd., Godrej Agrovet, and 3F are actively promoting and participating with the farmers in their respective states for record area expansion.

The Mega plantation drive commenced on 25th July 2023 and will continue till 12th August 2023.

The major oil palm growing states, namely, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Karnataka, Goa, Assam, Tripura, Nagaland, Mizoram, and Arunachal Pradesh will be participating in this initiative.

National Mission for Edible Oils- Oil Palm:

National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) is a new Centrally Sponsored Scheme with a special focus on the North east region and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands with a focus on increasing area and productivity of oilseeds and Oil Palm.

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.

This is the first time the Centre will give oil palm farmers a price assurance, with industry mandated to pay the viability gap funding of 14.3% of crude palm oil prices.

The proposed scheme will subsume the current National Food Security Mission-Oil Palm programme.

There are two major focus areas of the Scheme - Price assurance, Assistance for inputs/interventions

Aims:

To harness domestic edible oil prices that are dictated by expensive palm oil imports.

To raise the domestic production of palm oil by three times to 11 lakh MT by 2025-26.

This will involve raising the area under oil palm cultivation to 10 lakh hectares by 2025-26 and 16.7 lakh hectares by 2029-30.

About Palm Oil:

It’s an edible vegetable oil that comes from the fruit of oil palm trees, having the scientific name Elaeis guineensis.

Palm oil is an incredibly efficient crop, producing more oil per land area than any other equivalent vegetable oil crop fulfilling 35% of the world’s vegetable oil demand on just 10% of the land.

Two types of oil can be produced, crude palm oil comes and palm kernel oil, of which crude has more demand.

Palm oil is extremely versatile oil that has many different properties and is present in nearly 50 per cent packaged.

Palm oil is a major driver of deforestation of some of the world’s most biodiverse forests, destroying the habitat of already endangered species like the Orangutan, pygmy elephant and Sumatran rhino.

Oilseeds:

India is one of the major oilseeds growers and importers of edible oils.

India’s vegetable oil economy is the world’s fourth-largest after the USA, China & Brazil.

The oilseed accounts for 13% of the Gross Cropped Area, 3% of the Gross National Product and 10% value of all agricultural commodities.

This sector has recorded an annual growth rate of area, production and yield @ 2.44%, 5.47% and 2.96% respectively during the last decade (1999-2009).

Oilseeds cultivation is undertaken across the country in about 27 million hectares mainly on marginal lands, of which 72% is confined to rainfed farming.

A substantial portion of our requirement of edible oil is met through the import of palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia.