National Mission for Edible Oil (NMEO)

The Ministry of Agriculture has proposed for the National Mission for Edible Oil in order to increase the domestic availability and reduce the import dependency. The mission has been proposed for next five years in the span of 2020-21 to 2024-25.

About National Mission for Edible Oil (NMEO)

The NMEO comprises of the three Sub-Missions into it with the objective of increasing the production of oilseeds and edible oils from the three sources:

1. Primary Sources- it includes the Annual Crops, Plantation Crops and Edible TBOs
2. Secondary Sources- it includes the Rice bran oil and Cotton seed oil.
3. Consumer Awareness to maintain the edible oil consumption constant at 19.00 kg per person per annum.

Aim of the Mission

The mission has been proposed with the aim of increasing the production from 30.88 to 47.80 million tonnes of oilseeds. It seeks to produce 7.00 to 11.00 million tonnes of edible oils from Primary Sources by 2024-25. Also, the edible oils from secondary sources will be doubled from existing 3.50 to 7.00 million tonnes.

Challenges of oilseed production

In India, the major challenges associated with the oilseed production are:

1. Rain-fed conditions in 70% area.
2. High seed cost for Groundnut and Soybean.
3. Small holding capacity with limited resources.
4. Low seed replacement rate and
5. Low productivity.

Oil consumption in India

In India, there is a requirement of 25 million tonnes of edible oils so as to meet the requirement of current consumption level of 19 kg per person annually. Out of these, 10.50 million tonnes are produced domestically from primary sources like Soybean, Groundnut, Rapeseed & Mustard, Niger, Sunflower, & Safflower and the secondary sources like Coconut, Oil palm, Rice Bran, Cotton seeds & Tree Borne Oilseeds.  The 60%, of the requirement is met by the import. Though, the production of oilseeds is increasing rapidly but there exists a gap between the demand and supply of oilseeds. This is increased the dependency on imports.

Month: Current Affairs - January, 2021