Cabinet approves Rs 11,040 cr National Mission on the edible oils-oil palm with focus on North Eastern region.
Details
Under this mission the government will focus on increasing the oil palm cultivation to 10 lakh hectares by 2025-26 and 16.7 lakh hectares by 2029-30.
The Centre will provide some financial assistance to farmers to ensure that they get a good price for their produce.
It will work out the formula price and the viability price of the produce.
The weather condition in North East and Andaman and Nicobar Islands is conducive for oil palm cultivation and this is the reason why the special focus of the mission will be on these two areas.
Need of the Mission
The mission to push domestic palm oil production gains significance considering India imported nearly 133.5 lakh tonnes of edible oil in 2020-21 worth Rs 80,000 crore to meet the domestic requirement.
The share of imported palm oil was around 56% followed by soyabean (27%) and sunflower oil (16%).
Thus, to reduce India’s high dependence on import of edible oil the government has set the ambitious target for more than three-fold increase in domestic palm oil production, from the current 3 lakh tonnes to 11 lakh tonnes by 2025-26.
Way ahead
If the government aims to bring 10 lakh hectares under oil palm cultivation in the next five years, they must declare the oil palm as a plantation crop like rubber tea and coffee to attract investment.
Also, the land suitable for oil palm cultivation should be exempted from land ceiling act.
The government should give financial support of Rs 5,000 crore per annum for the next five years for Oilseeds and Oil Palm program to see tangible results.
Key Pointers- Palm Oil
Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of the oil palms.
Along with coconut oil, palm oil is one of the few highly saturated vegetable fats and is semisolid at room temperature.
It is resistant to oxidation and so can give products a longer shelf-life; it’s stable at high temperatures
Hence, the oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel.
Its use in the commercial food industry in other parts of the world is widespread because of its lower cost.
Indonesia is the largest producer of palm oil, followed by Malaysia - both countries account for 84% of the worlds palm production. The largest producers of palm oil are Thailand, Colombia and Nigeria.
Globally, palm oil supplies 35% of the world’s vegetable oil demand on just 10% of the land.
The largest user of palm oil are India (9.4 million tonnes) and Indonesia (6 million tonnes) – countries in which palm oil is traditionally used for cooking. The EU is the third-largest consumer of palm oil.
The largest importer of palm oil is India (19 per cent), followed by the European Union (15 per cent, 7.3 million tonnes) and China (14 per cent) (Index Muni, 2020).
In India, oil palm is being cultivated in 13 states. Potential states are Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Bihar.
Andhra Pradesh (83.5 percent) along with Telangana accounts for about 97 percent of India's 278,000 tonnes of crude palm oil production.
Concerns associated with Palm Oil Production
Palm oil has been and continues to be 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.
This forest loss coupled with conversion of carbon rich peat soils are throwing out millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and contributing to climate change.
There also remains some exploitation of workers and child labour.
Solution
Palm oil need to be produced more sustainably.
The Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil or RSPO was formed in 2004 in response to increasing concerns about the impacts palm oil was having on the environment and on society.
The RSPO has a production standard that sets best practices producing and sourcing palm oil.
Companies can be enforced to not just follow the basic RSPO standard but get independently verified against the new RSPO NEXT standard or the Palm Oil Innovation Group (POIG) Charter.
RSPO NEXT and POIG include tougher criteria on issues.
Zero deforestation (including of secondary forest)
No planting on peat
Stricter targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
Supporting smallholders with sustainability and business skills
Companies can be enforced to be transparent in their use and sourcing of palm oil.
No new planting in place of primary forest or areas of high conservation value since 2005.
Free, prior and informed consent of local people to plant palm oil on their land.
The obligation to measure and reduce climate change emissions.
A prohibition on the use of fire to clear land.
A requirement to keep soils healthy and to prevent erosion.
Safe pesticide use.
Decent working conditions and wages.
Compliance with local, national and international laws.
