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The Election Commission has directed the Ministry of Commerce to put on hold reduction of Minimum Export Price (MSP) of edible oil till the new government forms.
Amid optimistic oilseed production estimates, the interministerial committee of agriculture, commerce, food among others has decided to bring down the MEP for edible oil from $1,400 per tonne to $1,100 per tonne. In December last year, the MEP was slashed from $1,500 per tonne to $1,400 per tonne.
As per the second advance estimates in oilseeds released by the Department of Agriculture for the ensuing kharif season. The second estimates have projected the highest ever oilseed production of around 330 lakh tones as against target of 310 lakh tonnes , kharif and rabi crops put together for nine oilseeds.
These include – ground nut, castor, nigerseed, sesame, rapeseed, mustardseed, safflower, sunflower and soyabean. For the ensuing kharif season alone, the second advance estimates stood at 220 lakh tones compared to the target set of 205 lakh tonne and last year final estimate of 207 lakh tonne.
India exports edible oil in branded consumer packs of up to five kg quantity of groundnut, sunflower and rapeseed oils to cater to overseas demand. The export of unbranded edible oil was banned since 2008 because the domestic production is only 7—8 million tonnes as against the annual demand of 20 million tonnes.
Meanwhile, in an ambitious plan to augment the production of oil and oilseeds, the ministry of agriculture has rolled out a national mission on oilseeds and oil palm.
The mission envisages increasing vegetable oil production from oilseeds, oil palm and tree based oilseeds from 7.06 million tonnes in the 11th plan period to 9.51 million tonnes by the end of the 12th plan (2016-17). To be specific, the mission proposes to achieve a production of 35.51 million tonnes of oilseeds and productivity of 1328 kg/ hectare from the present average of around 29 million tones and 1081 kg/ha in the 11th plan period.
The targets in oil palm is to bring additional 1.25 lakh hectare area under oil palm cultivation including utilization of wasteland and increase in productivity of fresh fruit brunches (FFB) from 4927 kg per ha to 15000 kg per ha. In tree based oilseeds, seed collection is to be enhanced from 9 lakh tonnes to 14 lakh tones.
Olive has been included in tree borne oilseeds for the first time and thus eleven oilseeds have been identified for area expansion in tree borne oilseeds – karnaja, neem, jatropa, wild apricot, simarouba, kokum, tung, mahua, jojoba, cheura and olive.
All existing schemes like integrated scheme of oilseeds, oil pal and maize (ISOPOM), tree borne oilseeds (TBO) and Oil palm expansion programme (OPAE) have been merged into the national mission – NMOOP.
The cost of such interventions will be shared by the centre and state in the ratio of 75:25 but this time, there will be large scope for the private sector and nongovernmental organizations in promoting the oilseeds and oil palm scheme, said officials.
There is a component of flexi fund introduced in the scheme whereby 10% of the plan budget of NMOOP would be earmarked as flexi-fund to meet local needs, pilot projects of innovation or mitigate impact of natural calamities in different geographical regions.
