FARM MINISTRY TO SEND 50-BLN-RUPEE/YR EDIBLE OIL BUDGET PLAN TO FINANCE MINISTRY
16/12/2020 (COGENCIS ONLINE) - NEW DELHI: Within a week, the farm ministry will send a Budget proposal for its flagship National Mission on Edible Oils of 50 bln rupees a year to the finance ministry, a senior government official told Cogencis. Earlier, the proposal was for 100 bln rupees.
Under the mission, the government aims to increase production of oilseeds to over 47 mln tn by 2024-25 (Jul-Jun) from around 32 mln tn now, the official said.
"The finance ministry had declined farm ministry's proposal of annual allocation of 100 bln rupees…Now the agriculture ministry has reduced it to half. In less than a week, the new proposal would be sent to the expenditure finance committee of the finance ministry for its approval," the official said.
India, the world's largest importer of edible oils, requires an output of around 70 mln tn of oilseeds to attain self-sufficiency in edible oil production and stem the huge influx of imports, he said.
India produces just 10 mln tn edible oil from home-grown oilseeds and imports about 15 mln tn to meet the annual demand of 25 mln tn of cooking oils. Edible oil imports in India cost around 750 bln rupees to the exchequer.
If finance ministry approves the proposal, then it will be used to promote oilseed cultivation and incentivise farmers to shift to oilseed crops from other remunerative crops, the official said. Paddy fallow land will also be used to grow oilseeds.
Under the mission, the government aims to provide subsidy on good quality seeds and fertilisers to farmers and also soft loans to the processing industry.
The government will focus on growing more oilseeds like mustard, and groundnut in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, the leading wheat growers. Farmers will also be nudged towards growing more soybean in paddy regions during rabi season, the official said.
Focus will also be on setting up around 150 oilseed hubs in the country to produce high-yielding, drought-tolerant, and short duration seed varieties, the official said.
Efforts would also be made to produce more oil from non-oilseed crops such as cotton and rice, which are processed to produce cotton oil and rice bran oil, he said. Area under plantation crops such as oil palm would also be increased.
About 60% of edible oil imported in India is palm oil shipped from Indonesia and Malaysia, the world's top producers. End