Farmers to get free seeds under new NMEO-Oilseeds initiative: Chouhan

Agri minister said govt would procure farmers' entire production of oilseeds

Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Friday the government was planning to provide free breeder, foundation, and certified seeds to farmers across 347 districts in 21 states as part of the newly approved National Mission on Edible Oil-Oilseeds (NMEO-Oilseeds).

Around 600 clusters will be created in the 21 states and the government will procure the entire oilseeds production from farmers of these areas, he said.

Laying down the details of the Cabinet decision taken Thursday, Chouhan, while addressing a press conference in Bhopal, said a target had been set to bring an additional one million hectares of land under oilseeds cultivation every year and add almost 7 million hectares to the total acreage by 2031.

Currently, oilseeds are grown in around 29-30 million hectares of land annually.

Chouhan said as part of the mission, 65 new seed hubs and 50 seed storage units will be set up in the public sector.

The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a National Mission on Oilseeds with an outlay of Rs 10,103 crore.

The mission that will be implemented from 2024-25 to 2030-31 It aims to push India’s primary oilseed production from 39 million tonnes (2022-23) to 69.7 million tonnes by 2030-31, improve per hectare yields from 1,353 kgs to 2,112 kgs and domestic edible oils production from 12.7 million tonnes to 20.2 million tonnes by 2030-31.

The oilseeds mission together with the Mission on Oil Palm also seeks to lower India’s dependency on imported edible oil from the existing around 57 per cent to just around 28 per cent in the next seven years.

The oilseeds mission will primarily focus on enhancing the production of key crops such as mustard, groundnut, soybean, sunflower, and sesame, besides increasing collection and extraction from secondary sources like cottonseed, rice bran, and tree-borne oils.

According to the Cabinet decision, the mission aims to achieve these targets through a combination of strategies that include promoting the adoption of high-yielding oil-content seed varieties, extending cultivation into rice fallow areas, and promoting intercropping.

It will also nurture the ongoing development of high-quality seeds by using cutting-edge global technologies such as genome editing.

The mission will soon launch the Seed Authentication, Traceability and Holistic Inventory (SATHI) portal to enable states to establish advance tie-ups with seed-producing agencies, including private seed companies for a steady supply of high-yielding oilseeds seeds.

Long before the National Oilseeds Mission, there was another mission on oilseeds called the Technology Mission on Oilseeds (TMO) launched in 1986 to cut down the import and push up domestic production of edible oils. According to official records, consequent upon the setting up of the TMO, a breakthrough in increasing oilseeds production was achieved through an integrated approach. It involved introducing new crop production technologies, better supply of inputs, and extension services support for marketing, post-harvest technologies, and excellent coordination between various departments and ministries concerned.

As a result of concerted efforts by the TMOP, the production of oilseeds increased from 10.83 million tonnes in 1985-86 to 36.10 million tonnes in 2020-21. It has further moved up to 39.66 million tonnes in 2023-24. This brought not only an increase in the area but also an improvement in productivity from 570 kg/ha (1985-86) to 1,254 kg/ha in 2020-21, respectively. It has improved to 1,314 kgs in 2023-24. Despite impressive progress of the vegetable oil sector in the last two decades, the import has been rising for the last 7-8 years, the official note said.