27-08-2021 | 13:17 PM
National Mission on Edible Oil-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP)
• The Union Govt. has announced this new national initiative on palm oil production to help increase farm incomes. The scheme involves investment of over Rs 11,000 crore.
• The scheme aims to achieve self-reliance in edible oil, Harness domestic edible oil prices that are dictated by expensive palm oil imports and to raise the domestic production of palm oil by three times to 11 lakh MT by 2025-26.
Key features:
• The special emphasis of the scheme will be in India’s north-eastern states and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands due to the conducive weather conditions in the regions.
• Under the scheme, oil palm farmers will be provided financial assistance and will get remuneration under a price and viability formula.
• It is expected to incentivise production of palm oil to reduce dependence on imports and help farmers cash in on the huge market.
• India is the largest consumer of vegetable oil in the world. Of this, palm oil imports are almost 60% of its total vegetable oil imports.
• In 2016-2017, the total domestic consumption of palm oil by India was 9.3 million MT, with 98.97 percent of it imported from Malaysia and Indonesia.
About Palm oil:
• Palm oil is currently the world’s most consumed vegetable oil. It is used extensively in the production of detergents, plastics, cosmetics, and biofuels.
• Top consumers of the commodity are India, China, and the European Union (EU).
