Importance of Oil Palm in World’s Economy

Palm oil is principally obtained from Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis) also known as African oil palm or macaw-fat. This perennial crop originated in West Africa and spread in different parts of the world from there. Two types of oil is produced from this plant viz. palm oil from mesocarp of its fruit while palm kernel oil from its seed kernel. Both these oils are used in culinary as well as industrial purposes.

Importance of oil Palm

The import bill for edible oil is around $10 billion which is India’s third-highest overseas spending after oil and gold. This has many problems. It widens the current account deficit and it poses a challenge to the economy. There is a dire need to increase domestic production of edible oils. This can be done by two ways. One is to increase the productivity of existing oilseeds such as mustard, groundnut etc. or promote cultivation of a crop which surpasses all of them in productivity. Such crop is oil palm.

The palm oil plant is known for its high yield of edible oil.  While productivity in other oil seed plants is less than 1 tonne per hectare; oil palm gives around 4 to 6 tonnes per hectare of palm oil and 400 to 500 kilo palm kernel oil from its 4th year to 25th year. It has price advantage and good digestibility make it readily acceptable as cooking medium. It is also used as a raw material to manufacture oleochemicals used in making soaps, candles etc.