India expands oil palm cultivation by 52,113 hectares in FY2025/26

India has expanded its oil palm cultivation by 52,113 hectares in the current 2025/26 fiscal year, with the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh leading the charge, according to officials from the Ministry of Agriculture. This expansion is part of India’s ambitious National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP), which aims to expand the country’s oil palm planting area and reduce dependence on edible oil imports. With this recent addition, the total oil palm cultivation area under the NMEO-OP scheme stands at approximately 241,000 hectares since its launch in August 2021, while nationwide coverage of oil palm plantations has reached around 600,000 hectares. This is a significant step toward the government’s target of one million hectares of oil palm plantations by the end of the decade to boost domestic crude palm oil production from around 350,000 tonnes in 2020 to 2.3 million tonnes by 2029. Telangana contributed 12,005 hectares to the increase in cultivation, while ...