The Government proposes to spend Rs 3,507 crore during the 12th Five Year Plan to boost oilseeds output and bring additional area of 1.25 lakh hectares under oil palm.
“The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the implementation of National Mission on Oilseeds and Oil Palm with an allocation of Rs 3,507 crore,” a statement said.
Besides enhancing the oilseeds output by 6.58 million tonnes, the Mission would also bring additional area of 1.25 lakh hectares under oil palm cultivation with increase in productivity of fresh fruit bunches from 4,927 kg per hectare to 15,000 kg per hectare and increase in collection of tree borne oilseeds to 14 lakh tonne.
“The implementation of the proposed Mission would enhance production of vegetable oil sources by 2.48 million tonnes from oilseeds (1.70 million tonnes), oil palm (0.60 million tonnes) and tree borne oilseeds (0.18 million tonnes) by the end of the 12th Plan Period,” the statement said.
The Mission would emphasise on increasing the Seed Replacement Ratio with focus on varietal replacement; increasing irrigation coverage under oilseeds from 26 per cent to 38 per cent and diversification of area from low yielding cereals crops to oilseeds crops. Besides, it would also focus on inter-cropping of oilseeds and use of fallow land, expand area under oil palm and tree borne oilseeds. The mission would also focus on increasing the availability of quality planting materials of oil palm and tree borne oilseeds and also enhance the procurement of oilseeds and collection and processing of tree borne oilseeds.
Under the mission, the recommended varieties and proven technologies would be demonstrated in a cluster approach to ensure participation of all categories of farmers, irrespective of the size of their holdings, social status.
The oil palm mission is built upon the achievements of the existing schemes of Integrated Scheme of Oilseeds Oil Palm and Maize, Tree Borne Oilseeds Scheme and Oil Palm Area Expansion programme during the 11th Plan period. The implementation of these schemes have shown increase in production and productivity of oilseeds, area expansion with increased production of FFBs under oil palm and augmented availability of quality planting materials, pre-processing technologies and awareness about tree borne oilseeds.