Modi’s Atmanirbhar Bharat: How palm oil cultivation can make India self-reliant in edible oil

Published 2020년 7월 28일

Tridge summary

India, a net food exporting country, relies heavily on imports of edible oils, particularly palm oil, accounting for 60% of total imports. To reduce this dependency and support the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urges farmers in North-East States to cultivate oil palm. This would increase self-sufficiency in edible oils and reduce the strain on foreign exchange reserves. However, the expansion of oil palm cultivation faces challenges such as the opportunity cost of land and high irrigation costs, especially for smallholder farmers. To overcome these obstacles and bring 16 lakh hectares under oil palm cultivation, the government suggests providing farmers compensation for land use and subsidies for irrigation infrastructure. This could result in significant foreign exchange savings by producing 6.4 million MT of palm oil.

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Original content

Ashok Vishandaas & Nitisha Thakwani India is a net food exporting country but depends heavily on imports of edible oils. Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed on 23 July 2020 to the farmers in the North-East States to take up oil palm cultivation in a big way. It is a step to support the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative and will reduce the imports of Palm oil and make India self-sufficient in edible oils too. The domestic consumption of edible oils in India has been outstripping the production and the gap between the two is quite significant which is being met by imports. India imports nearly 15 million tonnes annually (or nearly 68 per cent) of edible oils to meet the country’s annual consumption demand of about 22 million tonnes. The bulk of these imports are palm oil. Of the total imports of edible oil, palm oil accounts for 60 per cent or about 9 million tonnes. Even though each vegetable oil has unique characteristics, they are substitutes in food as well as in industrial ...

Source: The Financial Express