Shifting 16.08 mn hectares paddy land to oil palm can lower India's imports

Edible oil demand-supply gap may widen to 40 mn tonnes by 2047, warns paper

India should consider repurposing around 16.08 million hectares of marginal paddy-growing land and use it for cultivating oil palm to reduce dependence on imports, said a white paper released on Friday.

 

A “focussed strategy” should improve oil palm yields from 2.4 tonnes per hectare to 4-5 tonnes, said the paper titled ‘Path to Palm Oil Self-Sufficiency in India’. It recommended how India can reduce its reliance on palm oil imports, boost domestic production, and achieve up to 50 per cent self-sufficiency by 2047.

 

Solidaridad Asia, a civil society organisation, prepared the paper in collaboration with The Solvent Extractors’ Association of India and Asian Palm Oil Alliance, two prominent industry groups.

   

The white paper said the government should create an enabling ecosystem to support oil palm cultivation through strategic investments in rural roads, fresh fruit bunch collection systems, and processing facilities, particularly in the northeastern states where infrastructure gaps remain a major constraint.

 

It added that the private sector, which plays a pivotal role in the oil palm industry by owning 69 of the country’s 82 seed nurseries and operating 26 of the 32 processing mills, should be strengthened further.

 

The paper also recommended bolstering research through regional centres of the Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research, adoption of regenerative agriculture, and integration of certification- and practice-based models in India to improve soil health, strengthen ecosystem services, and facilitate the successful integration of smallholder farmers into value chains.

 

India, the world’s largest importer of palm oil, sourced 8.9 million metric tonnes in 2023, accounting for 21 per cent of global imports, while domestic output met less than 5 per cent of demand.

 

Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday released a special 21st instalment of PM-KISAN income support for 2.7 million flood-affected farmers in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Uttarakhand. The beneficiaries include around 0.27 million women farmers. The support, worth about Rs 540 crore, has been released as a gesture of relief to help farmers recover from the recent calamities, said an official statement.