Rope in small farmers as clusters, vegoil industry tells corporates

With oil imports are putting pressure on the economy, oil industry experts have asked corporate players to follow the example of Ghana, Indonesia and Malaysia to help improve vegetable oil production.

“They do not have very large holdings. They are small farmers but are roped into big clusters. This has actually made them global players in oil production,” Dr B.R. Gaikwad, Director and President (Special Projects) of the Mumbai-based VVF Limited, said.

He was delivering Dr K.T. Achaya Memorial Lecture on Corporate responsibility – sustainability of vegetable oil industry at the 66th annual convention of Oil Technologists' Association of India. The two-day meeting was inaugurated on Friday at Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT).

“Even our farmers are small. They do not know what price they will get once they are ready with yields. You should tell them well in advance in order to gain their confidence. We should also tell them how to increase yields. This will go a long way in increasing production,” he said.

He also called for the need for tapping of unconventional sources such as tree-borne oils such as neem and karanja to reduce the oil import burden. “They need to be grown in large extents. These can be used for medicinal purposes and also for bio-diesel production,” he said.

He also lamented at the poor growth in production of oilseeds and oil. “Oilseed production increased to 27.8 million tonnes (mt) in 2010-11 from 24.29 mt in 2006. Oil production during the period remained stagnant around 6.4 mt. We need to do something about increasing productivity and production,” he said.

Mr Sushil Goenka, President of Solvent Extractors' Association of India, said that India imported 55 per cent of the 16 mt demand for edible oils. With per capita consumption expected to raise, the country needs to produce more, he added.

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