India To Increase Oil Palm Cultivation To Cut Imports

By Shakir Husain NEW DELHI, April 13 (Bernama) -- India aims to increase its oil palm cultivation hectarage to reduce its reliance on imports of edible oils. As part of its National Mission on Oilseeds and Oil Palm scheme, the Indian government is offering new incentives and subsidies to encourage large business groups to invest in oil palm cultivation. India's total production of edible oil is about nine million tonnes while its domestic requirement is around 25 million tonnes. Palm oil constituted about 75 per cent of the country's 680 billion rupees (US$10.55 billion) worth of vegetable oil imports in the financial year ended March 2016 (FY16). The Agriculture Ministry said in a statement government subsidies would now be extended to cover holdings larger than 25 hectares (ha) to "attract corporate bodies towards oil palm" cultivation. It said the current policies had not encouraged small farmers in big numbers to take up oil palm cultivation as costs were huge. India has grown its area under oil palm cultivation from 8,585ha in 1992 to around 300,000ha in 2016. The National Mission on Oilseeds and Oil Palm scheme, being implemented since FY15, aimed to add another 125,000ha under cultivation in FY17. The Agriculture Ministry said the scheme was being implemented in 12 states -- Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram, Odisha, Kerala, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Assam. --BERNAMA