Efforts for crop diversification can increase the production of edible oils

03-Sep-2024 04:27 PM

Mumbai. Although India is an important producer of oilseed oil, but due to very high domestic demand and consumption,

it also remains the most important importer of edible oils in the world. India's share in the total global production area of ​​oilseed crops is 15-20 percent and its share in production is 6-7 percent. About 9-10 percent of the edible oil in the world is consumed in India alone.

But 57 percent of the demand and need of edible oils in the country has to be met through imports from abroad. A very huge and valuable foreign currency has to be spent on this.

India has to face all the movements of the international edible oil market, which sometimes creates a strange situation.

During July 2024, there was a huge import of edible oils in India and under this, refiners especially increased the import of palm oil and soybean oil as its global market price remained attractive. In this regard,

Niti Aayog has prepared a detailed report in view of the increasing dependence on import of foreign edible oils.

Some important suggestions have been given in this report. Niti Aayog says that the structure of import duty on edible oils should be made flexible and the rate of duty should change according to the domestic and global market conditions.

It is important to note that under no circumstances the price of edible oils imported from abroad should be lower than indigenous edible oils and Indian oilseed producers must get profitable and attractive prices for their crops.

Apart from this, attention should be paid to increasing the sowing area of ​​oilseed crops through crop diversification scheme.

Even more important is to increase the expected yield rate of oilseed crops and to give maximum encouragement to palm cultivation.

The import of edible oils in India has now increased from crores-billions of rupees to trillions of rupees, which needs to be controlled as soon as possible.