Edible Oils Deficiency – Burning Issues

Table of Contents

Context

The Commerce Ministry has made a plea to the Agriculture Ministry.
It pleaded to work out a plan for self-sufficiency in edible oil
Purchase of cooking oil from abroad account for 65-70% of the domestic requirements
This makes it the thirdlargest import itemafter crude oil and gold.
Pricing policies and tariffshave turned oilseeds cultivation uneconomical vis-à-vis imports.
It is not for the first time that attention has been drawn to the need to shed such critical dependence on shipments from abroad for a mass-consumed essential item like a cooking medium.
Union Finance Minister had called for attaining self-reliance in oilseeds in her Budget speech 2019.
Imprudent policy regimes
domestic prices
Technology
Uncertainties about the returns
The trigger for what was then hailed as the “yellow revolution” was the setting up of the Oilseed Technology Mission in 1986.
It was set up with unbridled freedom to formulate and implement policies concerning the import, export, and domestic pricing of oilseeds.
An avatar of the Oilseed Technology Mission, with the same kind of powers and a similar remunerative prices-based strategy is needed.
This is needed again to resurrect the yellow revolution and achieve self-sufficiency in edible oils.