Steps To Increase Production Of Oilseeds And Edible Oil in India
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13 February 2024, New Delhi: The Government has been implementing a Centrally Sponsored Scheme viz., National Food Security Mission- Oilseeds & Oil palm (NFSM-OS&OP) from 2018-19 to augment the availability of edible oils by increasing the production and productivity of nine oilseed crops and area expansion under Oil Palm & Tree Borne Oilseeds in the country.
Under the NFSM – Oilseeds, incentives/ subsidies are being provided to the farmers through State Government for three broad interventions viz. (i) seed component covering purchase of breeder seeds , production of foundation seeds & certified seeds, distribution of certified seeds, distribution of seed minikits & seed hub (ii) production inputs component covering seed storage bins, Plant Protection (PP) equipments & seed treating drum, PP chemicals, distribution of gypsum/ pyrites/ lime etc., Nuclear Polyhedrosis Virus/ bio agent, supply of bio-fertilizers, improved farm implements, sprinkler sets, water carrying pipes, and (iii) transfer of technology component covering cluster/ block demonstrations, Frontline Demonstrations, Cluster Frontline Demonstrations and training through National Agricultural Research System and Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Integrated Pest Management through Farmer Field School (FFS) mode, training of farmers, training of officers/ extension workers, need based R&D project including seminar/ kisan mela and oil extraction unit under flexi funds.
Now, the Government has launched a separate mission i.e. National Mission on Edible Oils (Oil Palm)- NMEO (OP) in 2021-22 to promote oil palm cultivation for making the country Aatmanirbhar in edible oils with special focus on North Eastern States and Andaman & Nicobar by increasing area of Oil Palm from 3.70 lakh hectares to 10.00 lakh hectares in 2025-26.
Both NFSM- Oilseeds and NMEO (OP) are being implemented in the country with the objective of augmenting the availability of edible oils by increasing the production and productivity of oilseeds & oil palm and reducing the import burden.
In addition to above, Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana- RAFTAAR (RKVYRAFTAAR) provides provision for crop production related activities on oilseeds. Under RKVY-RAFTAAR, the states can also implement programme on oilseeds with the approval of State Level Sanctioning Committee (SLSC) constituted under the chairpersonship of Chief Secretary of the state.
Finance Minister during her budget speech 2024 has made following announcement:-
“Building on the initiative announced in 2022, a strategy will be formulated to achieve ‘atmanirbharta’ for oil seeds such as mustard, groundnut, sesame, soybean and sunflower. This will cover research for high- yielding varieties, widespread adoption of modern farming techniques, market linkages, procurement, value addition, and crop insurance”.
Due to efforts of the Government, the import dependency of edible oils have been reduced from 63.25% in 2015-16 to 57.30% in 2022-23 and domestic production has increased from 36.75 % in 2015-16 to 42.71 % in 2022-23 of the total demand of the country despite rise in overall demand of edible oil.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India organizes National Conferences on Agriculture Campaign before sowing season of Zaid, Kharif & Rabi to discuss various issues related to upcoming sowing season. In these conference issues related to seeds are also discussed. The details of National Conferences organized by Ministry in last three years are given below:
S. No.
National Conference for
Date
1.
Rabi-2023-24
26.09.2023
2.
Kharif-2023
03.05.2023
3.
Zaid-2023
20.02.2023
4.
Rabi-2022-23
07.09.2022
5.
Kharif-2022
19.04.2022
6.
Zaid-2022
27.01.2022
7.
Rabi-2021-22
21.09.2021
8.
Kharif-2021
30.04.2021
9
Zaid-2021
22.01.2021
10
Rabi 2020-21
21.09.2020
11
Kharif-2020
16.04.2020
12
Zaid-2020
17.01.2020
In these conferences, various issues related to agriculture at National and State levels are discussed. During these conferences: –
Seed requirement and availability is reviewed to ensure sufficient availability of seeds.
Modalities of making newly released high yielding varieties/seeds of different crop available to farmers on time are discussed.
Strategy for promotion of stress tolerant, climate resilient varieties to meet the requirement of climate change are discussed. Besides, inclusion of biofortified varieties in public distribution system to cope up nutrition deficiency in the areas of malnutrition are discussed.
Focus is also given on preparation of dynamic seed rolling plan by States Government that include newly releases short & medium duration high yielding varieties of different crops.
Planning is made for capacity building of seed law enforcement agencies, seed certification agencies, seed testing labs to make available the quality seeds to the farmers.
Strategies are discussed to popularizing newly released varieties, farm demonstration & awareness programs for farmers by the State Government.
