The Union government’s 100- day programme, likely to be announced soon, may include the launch of the much-awaited National Mission on Oilseeds under which the Agriculture Ministry targets raising production by another 2-3 million tonnes (mt) by 2025-26 from 40-41 mt and to further reduce India’s import dependence.

“There will be a long-term as well as short-term programme. Since the import dependence of edible oils has come down to about 56 per cent in 2022-23 oil year (November-October) from a high of over 63 per cent in 2015-16, the challenge is how to further reduce it by raising production of all types of domestic sources, despite limitation on area,” an official source said.

It is learnt that the government is targeting raising edible oil production to 14.5 mt, including 1.1 mt of crude palm oil (CPO) by the 2025-26 oil year from 12.69 mt in 2022-23.

In the 2022-23 Budget speech, the Finance Minister had announced: “To reduce our dependence on import of oilseeds, a rationalised and comprehensive scheme to increase domestic production of oilseeds will be implemented.”

In the 2023-24 Budget, the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare stated that the promise of a comprehensive scheme was “substantially implemented under the National Food Security Mission (Oilseeds) and the National Mission of Edible Oil (Oil Palm),” after taking routine steps such as releasing new varieties.

However, during the 2024-25 Interim Budget, the Finance Minister said: “Building on the initiative announced in 2022, a strategy will be formulated to achieve atmanirbharta for oilseeds such as mustard, groundnut, sesame, soybean, and sunflower. This will cover research for high-yielding varieties, widespread adoption of modern farming techniques, market linkages, procurement, value addition, and crop insurance.”

In August 2021, the Centre rolled out the ₹11,040-crore National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme with a special focus on the North-East region and the Andaman and Nicobar islands. There is a target to bring in additional area of 6.5 lakh hectare (lh), taking the total area under oil palm cultivation to 10 lh by 2025-26.

Edible oil imports declined by 5.38 per cent 8.57 mt in the first seven months (November-May) of the current oil year from 9.06 mt a year-ago, according to industry body Solvent Extractors’ Association of India.