Current Affairs 2022: National Edible Oil Mission

By Athira

Edible oil is an essential part of the daily food habits of the majority of the population. The recent surge in palm oil prices and India's dependency on foreign countries come to fore in the recent times. National Edible Oil Mission tries to address this problem in the long run. Read here the highlights of the National Edible Oil Mission.

Our country is one of the largest consumers of edible oil in the world. How Indians devour food cooked in countless spices and a wide variety of oils. The story of oil palm cultivation dates back to 1992 and until now various governments have prioritised its importance in India. With that said, our growing economy is evolving in terms of reducing dependencies with other countries by enhancing production in various sectors through self-driven initiatives.

National Edible Oil Mission

The union government introduced a national mission on edible oils to showcase potential benefits we can reap out of it thus inducing more employment to farmers. The latest development in this scheme aims to cover an area of approx. 10 Lakhs and a production of about 1.12 Million tonnes by 2026. The production shall be focussed on North-Eastern and southern parts of India considering the apt climatic conditions.

Practically the graph is quite high when it comes to importing oils; henceforth if production targets are achieved as planned, the import dependence shall drastically diminish to a level wherein we can compensate to more than 50% of the consumption of oils. This simultaneously creates more jobs for skilled labours across the regions. A major concern in this aspect shall be the varying global prices of oils, which in turn triggers the ambiguity of producing our oils, however with this scheme the government shall fund for any variations in prices.

Because palm oil usage is exponentially high compared to others making it a crucial factor of concern for our economy. The mission is in the right direction for a progressing nation focussing on “Atmanirbharta”. Achieving a target as specified by the government depends majorly on incentivising farmers to realise their prices for investing in cultivation. It’s this aspect, which needs introspection, which is accurately aimed against this scheme.

The intriguing factor, which again creates a vague picture for this mission’s success, is import duty. After an inadvertent rise in prices, duty reduction is our only chance to curb the propaganda. Ultimately, the targeting crops like soya bean, mustard and oil palms we are in a good position for additional availability. All these crops have their own pace of yield and hence it’s equally important to strategise this mission state to state. The financial viability of this mission heavily depends on centres share being 80% against that of states shares. It emphasizes that the government shall be conclusive in helping farmers from price fluctuations and bear additional costs if any. Farmers need to understand better about the crops and their newer varieties for good quality products.

This trigger to betterment shall be possible only with better technological measures and agrochemicals usage. Ultimately, the quality of the crop shall be determined by how much yield it can derive. Land expansion shall be a deciding factor for intermittent production, which in turn cannot be done under different Land acts. The same shall cause problems with achieving the specified target ahead. Cluster demonstrations and other extension activities in this line can be promoted.

If we look at this initiative from a different perspective then the issue with planting seeds to achieve specified targets shall be compensated under this scheme; however, the additional provision of funds shall cater to attracting more industrial players to invest. Statistical data specifies that our country will be in serious trouble if imports are hampered to an extent where we would find it difficult to survive without them. Majorly it’s equally important to maintain the prices on hold as well as seek industrial players’ hands to necessitate the need of the hour.

Objectives of National Edible Oil Mission

The promotion of such centrally driven schemes shall emphasize and motivate people especially when monetary means are always met at the right time. Companies that play a major role in reducing retail prices have made constant efforts to maintain the trend to meet India’s consumption pattern. Global variation in prices have been changing the trends and hence the import duties of refined and crude edible oils were reduced several times this year. Another interesting aspect of this initiative is to regulate the market by keeping intact selected players in this field, i.e. launch of newly added commodities from derived markets are not being tapped.

Our country has been facing this intermittent gap to meet the demand and supply of edible oils by importing the same for ages, this mission shall encourage our farming sector as well as boost our spirits to triple the production for a self-sufficient India under this centre driven initiative. The future of this mission shall be highly dependent on factors such as increased urbanization, changing lifestyle of people and consumption of more refined and processed food. Because Indians cannot simply avoid edible oils sustainable solutions to all the changing scenarios is to produce more by expanding horizons across the country.

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