A new mission

Explore unconventional sources of edible oil

The government’s move to set up a Rs 11,000-crore oilseeds mission to make the country self-sufficient in edible oils is an initiative that should have been taken much earlier. India has been chronically short of edible oils, an essential item of mass consumption, since the mid-1990s. The casual bids made in the past to spur domestic oilseeds production could not make much headway for want of appropriate pricing policies, which, most often, tended to over-protect consumer interests, disregarding those of the producers. Consequently, the supply deficit continued to soar, making India the world’s largest importer of cooking oils. Today, the