Agriculture Minister addresses 2nd Business Summit of National Mission on Edible Oils - Oil Palm

Union Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomartoday assured all possible support to states for increasing Oil Palm production with an aim to reducing imports and making the country self-sufficient.

Addressing the second Business Summit of the National Mission on Edible Oils - Oil Palm in Hyderabad this morning, he asserted that the decision for major investment in oil palm plantation is aimed at enhancing domestic supply of edible oils and reducing its import.

He said, the country had to import 133 lakh tonnes of edible oils at a cost of over 82 thousand crore rupees to meet domestic requirements during last fiacal. He assured to make major investments for seed nursery, drip irrigation, technical back up, setting of mills, purchase centers and also training of farmers.

Stating that currently there is no support from the Government for price assurance to the oil palm farmers, the Minister said, it will declare the Viability Price for assurance to the farmers and will make Viability gap Payment directly to farmers for the difference in case price paid by industry is less than the Viability Price.

He further informed that the National Mission on Edible Oils- Oil Palm with an outlay of over 11 thousand crore rupees will bring additional area of 6.50 lakh hectares under Oil Palm cultivation in next five years. It is expected to increase production to over 28 lakh tonnes by 2030 from current level of 2.77 lakh tonnes.

Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Choudhary, Telangana Agriculture Minister S. Niranajan Reddy, are among who attended the summit.