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| 'Declare oil palm a plantation crop' | | Q&A: Dorab Mistry, Director, Godrej International |
| Dilip Kumar Jha / Mumbai Dec 15, 2009, 00:54 IST |
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With a rising reliance on imports to meet the domestic demand for vegetable oil, Dorab Mistry, Director of Godrej International, tells Dilip Kumar Jha the government should take some initiatives to increase palm oil cultivation:
India’s reliance on vegetable oil imports has increased due to stagnant domestic production and staggering demand. How can the dependence on foreign markets be minimised ?
India’s import reliance has increased significantly over recent years. The country’s vegetable oil imports are likely to be 8.6 million tonnes (MT) in 2009-10 from 4.8 MT in 2000-01. There is no alternative to increasing domestic output if import reliance is to be reduced, which is possible only through introduction of genetically modified (GM) seeds and entry of corporate farming into this sector.
Industry has been demanding incentives for growing oil palm trees, due to the high gestation period. Your observation?
The ideal locations for oil palm trees are within eight degrees latitude north and south of the Equator. Therefore, India is less than ideal for oil palm. The palms need regular rainfall all 12 months of the year. In India, we have to get over this problem by resort to drip irrigation. We can grow oil palm in Kerala, AP, Karnataka, Goa and a few other areas, but only with irrigation. The biggest problem in India is that oil palm is a plantation crop, which requires corporate farming. Even small holders require 50 to 100 hectares to do meaningful cultivation. In India, holdings are very small and big companies like Godrej cannot buy agricultural land for cultivation. That is why we say the Indian government should declare oil palm a plantation crop.
What else is required to make us self-reliant in edible oil ?
I do not think India can ever aspire to be self-reliant in vegetable oil. The best we can hope for is to increase our production to 60-70 per cent of our consumption. The beauty of oil palm is its exceptionally high productivity. One hectare of mustard sowing will produce 900 kg of mustard seed, which will give 300 kg of mustard oil. One hectare of oil palm trees will produce about 3.5-4 tonnes of palm oil. Farmers love to switch over to oil palm. The only trouble is, they must wait four years for the trees in India to start yielding palm fruit bunches, which then give palm oil and palm kernel oil. During that gestation period, the farmer needs government grants to survive.
How have Malaysia and Indonesia succeeded in oil palm farming?
We cannot strictly compare Malaysia and Indonesia with India. Both countries have vast tracts of forest land, with almost no population in those areas. Land which is called “degraded forest” ( because the timber has already been removed ) is cleared and oil palm plantations developed. Malaysia has devoted about 4.5 million hectares to oil palm estates and produces about 18 MT of palm oil. Most of the development took place after 1970. Indonesia has devoted about 6.5 million hectares and is now producing about 22 MT of palm oil. Most of this is post-1980. Indonesia is planting about 500,000 hectares more each year and expanding its plantation sector.
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