Towards self sufficiency in edible oils: Review of palm oil expansion in India

India harvests about 30 million tons of oilseeds against the world production of more than 250 million tons per annum. Although, India is a major producer of oilseeds, per capita oil consumption in India during 2011–12 was only 8.09 kg/annum in rural and 10.24 kg/annum in urban areas. Per capita consumption in India is low when compared with 12.5 kg/annum in China, 20.8 kg/annum in Japan, 21.3 kg/annum in Brazil and 48.0 kg/annum in USA. With increasing population, during the recent past domestic consumption of edible oils has increased substantially and has touched the level of 18.90 million tonnes and is likely to increase further. A substantial portion of our requirement of edible oil is met through import of palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia. During TE 2015–16, India imported 12.11 million tonnes of vegetable oil of which palm oil accounted for about 71 per cent of total import, which implies that the country is dependent on palm oil imports for about 40 per cent of its annual edible oil requirement. It is, therefore, necessary to exploit domestic resources to maximize production to ensure edible oil security for the country. Oil Palm is comparatively a new crop in India and is the highest vegetable oil yielding perennial crop. Therefore, there is an urgent need to intensify efforts for area expansion under oil palm to enhance palm oil production in the country. India identified 10.4 lakh hectare as potential area for oil palm growing in 2006. Only 2.8 lakh hectare has been covered under oil palm until 2015. After the oil palm development scheme implementation, total production in major states in the country increased from 1,76,142 tonnes in 2004–05 to 9,95,212 tonnes in 2013–14. There has been improvement in production of FFBs by six times over the period of ten years. When we take a comparative look between prior and post implementation of the scheme, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram and Odisha registered increasing trends in area cultivation. On the other hand, Kerala and Maharashtra recorded decline in the area under oil palm cultivation and these states later withdrawn from the scheme. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram and Odisha, on the other hand, have implemented the scheme in an effective and efficient manner.