The Hindu Business Line : Call to increase oilseeds production

Mumbai March 13 The Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEAI) has urged the Union Government to refocus on the country's food security with use of agricultural products for production of bio-diesel and ethanol increasing at an alarming pace, world-over.

"In the US, bio-diesel is produced from soyabean oil while in EU it is based on rapeseed oil; in Indonesia and Malaysia bio-diesel is produced from palm oil. Large bio-diesel capacity creation has put a tremendous pressure on the prices of edible oils in the international markets since last year," said Mr A.R. Sharma, President, SEAI.

Under the changing scenario, India's self-sufficiency in edible oils has come down to 60 per cent from 97 per cent in 1992-93.

This has forced the Government to reduce import duty on palm and soyabean oil in last six months.

Effective duty on crude palm oil and soyabean oil has come down from 86.9 per cent and 46.4 per cent in January 2006 to 46 per cent and 38.3 per cent respectively.

Shortage of oilseeds is also bound to result in scarcity of de-oiled meal such as soya cakes and barley feeds.

High de-oiled meal prices, in turn, will adversely affect the availability and prices of milk, egg, fish and meat.

To increase production of oilseeds and improve availability of edible oils, the Government should, "strengthen the Technology Mission on oilseeds, pulses and maize, focus on increasing productivity, encourage exploitation of large untapped potential of non-traditional vegetable oils such as rice bran, push for palm plantation, sale of blended oils and ensure appropriate import duty structure on imported edible oils," the SEAI said.

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