Farmers will get free seeds under the new NMEO-Oilseeds initiative: Chouhan
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.
Click here to contact us via WhatsApp
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.
First publication: Oct 04, 2024 | 9:16 pm IST