New Delhi, Aug 18 (FN Agency) Seeking to increase edible oil production and cut import dependence, Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared a Rs 11,040 crore National Mission on Edible Oils-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP). “A financial outlay of Rs 11,040 crore has been made for the scheme, out of which Rs 8,844 crore is the Government of India share and Rs 2,196 crore is State share and this includes the viability gap funding also,” said an official statement. The move is part of the government’s plan to achieve self-reliance in edible oil. The NMEO-OP would ensure that farmers get all the facilities, from quality seeds to technology to enhance area and productivity of oil palm. The proposed scheme will subsume the current National Food Security Mission-Oil Palm programme.
Announcing the Cabinet decision, Union Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Anurag Thakur said that the focus of the Centrally-sponsored scheme is on increasing area and productivity of oilseeds. Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said that raw material for palm oil would be priced through a mechanism by the central government so that farmers do not suffer due to fluctuations in prices. Under this scheme, it is proposed to cover an additional area of 6.5 lakh hectare (ha.) for oil palm till the year 2025-26 and thereby reaching the target of 10 lakh hectares ultimately. The production of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) is expected to go upto 11.20 lakh tonnes by 2025-26 and upto 28 lakh tonnes by 2029-30.
“The scheme will immensely benefit the oil palm farmers, increase capital investment, create employment generation, shall reduce the import dependence and also increase the income of the farmers,” said the official statement. Under NMEO-OP, oil palm farmers would get price assurance for the Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFBs) from which oil is extracted by the industry. This will protect the farmers from the fluctuations of the international CPO prices and protect them from the volatility. A substantial increase has been made for planting material for oil palm and this has increased from Rs 12,000 per ha to Rs 29000 per ha. Further, substantial increase has been made for maintenance and inter-cropping interventions. To address the issue of shortage of planting material in the country, seed gardens will be provided assistance up to Rs 100 lakhs for 15 hectare in North-East and Andaman regions while Rs 80 lakhs for 15 hectare in the rest of India.