12/08/2019 - Agriculture | Mainstorming

IAS Parliament 5 years

KEY POINTS

· India is perhaps the biggest market for edible oil. Annual imports during the past three years have averaged 14.82 million tonnes at $9.43 billion.

· Though palm oil has a high proportion of unhealthy saturated fats-45% compared to 6% in mustard oil-there is no way India can affordably meets its growing needs without relying on it.

· In cooking oil, India depends on imports for two-thirds of its requirement. Self-sufficiency is almost impossible with oilseeds because there is not enough land available.

· Currently, it covers 3.45 lakh hectares out of a potential area of 19.33 lakh hectares, nearly half of it in Andhra Pradesh.

· Uncertainty of income deters smallholder farmers from investing in a long-gestation crop, which yields fruit after three years of planting for 27 years.

· Low productivity also haunts the industry. India produces five tonnes per hectare on average. The best yield, of 53 tonnes, was achieved by a farmer in Mysuru, but that’s an exception. This is closer to Malaysia’s productivity of 20 tonnes per hectare.

· Low yields translate into low capacity utilisation of the processing plants, which adds to the

· India’s average palm oil yield is 0.88 tonnes per hectare, compared to Malaysia’s four tonnes and Andhra’s two tonnes.

· In a nutshell, we will continue to import palm oil, simply because we do not and will not be able to produce enough palm oil to meet our growing demand.

· Studies indicate oil palm plantations threaten water quality changing freshwater ecosystems for decades, lowering the water table, which can lead to increasing concentrations of arsenic in drinking water, and adding salinity to coastal freshwater.

· While India may be able to ignore ecological loss in distant contexts like Indonesia and Malaysia, the problems are getting more complicated and closer home.