Farmers will get free seeds under the new NMEO-Oilseeds initiative: Chouhan

By Liam On Oct 4, 2024

3 minutes reading Last updated: Oct 04, 2024 | 9:16 pm IST

Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday said the government plans to provide free breeding, foundation and certified seeds to farmers in 347 districts in 21 states as part of the recently approved National Edible Oilseeds Mission (NMEO-Oilseeds ).

About 600 clusters will be created across the 21 states and the government will source entire oilseed production from farmers in these areas, he said.

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While outlining the details of the Cabinet decision taken on Thursday, Chouhan said at a press conference in Bhopal that a target had been set to bring an additional million hectares of land for oilseed cultivation every year and add nearly 7 million hectares to the total . area in 2031.

Currently, oilseeds are grown on approximately 29 to 30 million hectares annually.

Chouhan said that as part of the mission, 65 new seed hubs and 50 seed storage units will be set up in the public sector.

The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a National Mission for Oilseeds with an outlay of Rs 10,103 crore.

The mission to be carried out from 2024-25 to 2030-31 aims to increase India’s primary oilseed production from 39 million tonnes (2022-23) to 69.7 million tonnes by 2030-31, and the yields per hectare to improve from 1,353 kg to 2,112 kg. and domestic production of edible oils from 12.7 million tonnes to 20.2 million tonnes in 2030-31.

The oilseed mission, along with the Mission on Oil Palm, also aims to reduce India’s dependence on imported edible oil from the current around 57 percent to only about 28 percent over the next seven years.

The oilseeds mission will primarily focus on improving production of key crops such as mustard, groundnuts, soybeans, sunflowers and sesame, besides increasing collection and extraction from secondary sources such as cottonseed, rice bran and tree oil.

According to the Cabinet decision, the mission aims to achieve these objectives through a combination of strategies, including promoting the adoption of seed varieties with high productive oil content, expanding cultivation into fallow rice areas and promoting intercropping.

It will also promote the continued development of high-quality seeds by utilizing advanced global technologies such as genome editing.

The Mission will soon launch the Seed Authentication, Traceability and Holistic Inventory (SATHI) portal to enable states to make advance contacts with seed producing agencies, including private seed companies, for steady supply of high-yielding oilseeds.

Long before the National Oilseeds Mission, there was another mission on oilseeds in 1986, the Technology Mission on Oilseeds (TMO), which was launched to reduce imports and increase domestic production of edible oils. According to official documents, after the establishment of the TMO, a breakthrough was achieved in increasing oilseed production through an integrated approach. It included the introduction of new technologies for crop production, improved supply of inputs, and support for extension services for marketing, post-harvest technologies, and excellent coordination between the various departments and ministries involved.
Due to concerted efforts of the TMOP, oilseed production has increased from 10.83 million tonnes in 1985-86 to 36.10 million tonnes in 2020-21. Production has further increased to 39.66 million tonnes in 2023-2024. This not only brought an increase in area but also an improvement in productivity from 570 kg/ha (1985-86) to 1,254 kg/ha in 2020-2021 respectively. This has improved to 1,314 kg in 2023-2024. Despite the impressive progress of the vegetable oil sector over the past two decades, imports have increased over the past seven to eight years, the official note said.

First publication: Oct 04, 2024 | 9:16 pm IST