Govt approves National Mission on Edible Oils-Oilseeds with Rs 10,103-crore outlay

New Delhi: The government on Thursday approved National Mission on Edible Oils-Oilseeds with an outlay of Rs 10,103 crore to boost domestic production and make India self sufficient in cooking oils. India imports more than 50 per cent of its annual edible oil requirement.

“The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the National Mission on Edible Oils-Oilseeds (NMEO-Oilseeds), a landmark initiative aimed at boosting domestic oilseed production and achieving self-reliance in edible oils,” an official statement said.

The mission will be implemented over a seven-year period, from 2024-25 to 2030-31, with a financial outlay of Rs 10,103 crore, it added.

The government through this mission aims to increase primary oilseed production from 39 million tonnes in 2022-23 to 69.7 million tonnes by 2030-31. “It seeks to extend oilseed cultivation by an additional 40 lakh hectares,” it added.

India imports palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia while soyabean oil is imported from Brazil and Argentina. Sunflower comes mainly from Russia

and Ukraine.

According to the statement, the newly approved NMEO-Oilseeds will focus on enhancing the production of key primary oilseed crops such as rapeseed-mustard, groundnut, soyabean, sunflower, and sesamum, as well as increasing collection and extraction efficiency from secondary sources like cottonseed, rice bran, and tree-borne oils.

Together with NMEO-OP (oil palm), the mission targets to increase domestic edible oil production to 25.45 million tonnes by 2030-31 meeting around 72 per cent of our projected domestic requirement.

This will be achieved by promoting adoption of high-yielding high oil content seed varieties, extending cultivation into rice fallow areas, and promoting intercropping. “The mission will harness ongoing development of high-quality seeds by using cutting-edge global technologies such as genome editing,” the government said. To ensure timely availability of quality seeds, the mission will introduce an online 5-year rolling seed plan through the ‘Seed Authentication, Traceability & Holistic Inventory (SATHI)’ portal, enabling states to establish advance tie-ups with seed-producing agencies, including cooperatives, farmer producer organizations, and government or private seed corporations.