Context
Highlighting the importance of Mission Palm Oil in making India Aatmanirbhar in the edible oil sector and boosting the income of farmers, the Prime Minister inaugurated the first oil mill under this mission.
Need for Investment in Palm Oil
India is presently a net importer of edible oil, with 57% of the total edible oil being imported from various countries. The insufficiency in edible oil is negatively impacting our FOREX by 20.56 billion USD.
About Oil Palm
- Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis), originated from West Africa is comparatively a new crop in India and has highest vegetable oil yielding capability per ha.
- Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala are major Oil palm growing States and accounting around 98% of total production.
- Its climatic requirements
- It is a humid crop. It requires evenly distributed rainfall of 150mm/ month or 2500-4000mm/annum.
- Crop comes up well between 29-33oC max. and 22-24oC min. temperatures and with bright sunlight for at least 5 hrs. per day.
- Humidity of more than 80% is required to come up well.
Significance of First Oil Mill
- It will make India self-sufficient (Atmanirbhar) in the production of edible oil through the promotion of oilseeds and palm oil.
- It will help in the government’s commitment to fostering economic growth, empowering farmers, and creating a sustainable and self-reliant ecosystem for edible oil production in India.
- The North-Eastern Region (NER) is pivotal in achieving Atmanirbharta in edible oil as the region has a vast potential area of 8.4 lakh hectares.
National Mission for Edible Oils – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP)
- The Mission is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme with a special focus on the Northeast region and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
- It is approved with the aim to enhance edible oilseeds production and oil availability in the country by harnessing Oil Palm area expansion to reduce the import burden on edible oils.
- It is committed to escalating oil palm cultivation and elevating Crude Palm Oil production to 11.20 lakh tonnes by 2025-26.
- It is presently operational in 15 states nationwide.
- It has provisioned INR 5,870 Cr exclusively for the Northeast region out of the total national budget for the promotion of oil palm, where 90% contribution will be made by the Central government.
- The Government of India will pay a differential of 2% on the Crude palm oil (CPO) price to farmers considering the tough and difficult terrain of the Northeast region.
- It protects the farmers from the global price volatility in oil palm by providing viability gap payment (VGP) to hedge farmers’ risk.
- It is also promoting private players to invest in the NER for establishing post-harvest processing facilities in the region, where special assistance of Rs 5 crore is allocated for oil palm processing mills in the NER.