Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently appealed to the farmers of the Northeastern states to take up palm oil cultivation. This appeal was made with a motive to make India self-sufficient in edible oils.
India consumes way more edible oil than it produces. Hence, the country has to depend heavily on imports to bridge the gap. About 15 million tonnes of edible oils get imported every year out of which 60 per cent is palm oil making India the largest importer of the commodity.
Hence, cultivation of palm in the country itself would reduce the import dependence helping the country in becoming atmanirbhar. This step can also give a boost to domestic production.
Studies have shown that palm cultivation can lead to significant environment damage. For the cultivation of palm, the land has to be cleared which results in intensive deforestation.
Much of the area of the Northeastern States is covered by natural vegetation and cultivation of this crop in a large scale will definitely interfere with the fragile ecology of the place.
Another important point to be noted is that ethnic communities of this region consume very less amount of refined oil prepared from palm plant, hence its not cultivated in the region.
(Feature image source: Food navigator asia)
