Union Cabinet Clears National Mission On Palm Oil To Cut Dependence On Imports

The palm oil mission will have a financial outlay of Rs 11,040 crore and will boost domestic cultivation of palm oil in the next five years.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared a scheme to reduce its import dependence on edible oils, especially palm oil and boost its production in the country. Titled the "National Mission on Edible Oils - Oil Palm", the scheme got the approval just days after it was announced by Mr Narendra Modi during the Independence Day speech. The mission will have a financial outlay of Rs 11,040 crore and will look to improve domestic cultivation of palm oil in the next five years, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told media persons during a press conference. The aim of the scheme is to raise the area of cultivation for palm oil to 10 lakh hectares by 2025-26 and up to 16.7 lakh hectares by 2029-2030. Due to the heavy dependence on imports for edible oils, it is important to make efforts for increasing the domestic production of edible oils in which increasing area and productivity of oil palm plays an important part, an official statement said.