In a bid to reduce dependence on edible oil imports, the government is considering measures to expand the area under sunflower cultivation, an agriculture ministry official said on Tuesday.
Measures to revive sunflower production, which used to be grown on 2.66 million hectare (mh) in 1993-94, will include supply of quality seeds, productivity improvement through introduction of technology, and promotion of processing and value addition.
According to the official, area under sunflower cultivation dropped to 1.94 mh during 2005-2010. “Currently it is grown on only 0.2 mh, mostly in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh,” the official said. Earlier Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh also used to grow sunflower.
Agriculture ministry officials said there is scope to expand sunflower cultivation in Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha and Chhattisgarh.
“This is what we have been telling the government all along, to promote cultivation of oilseeds within the country itself,” said Atul Chaturvedi, president, Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA). Chaturvedi said at one point, the southern states were producing at least one million tonne of sunflower seed.
Agriculture ministry officials said the lack of remunerative price is the main reason for the decline in recent years. “Less involvement of private companies in seed production due to less sunflower area has further reduced the cultivation,” an agriculture ministry note said.
Chaturvedi said the SEA is also pushing for similar steps for groundnut and mustard, which are high oil-bearing seeds. “All these seeds are part of our proposal for the national mission, which we have been trying to put across to the government,” he said.
Union minister for agriculture and farmers’ welfare Narendra Singh Tomar last month discussed promotion of sunflower cultivation with states, experts and other stakeholders.
Currently, India produces about 45% of its domestic edible oil consumption requirement. Soya bean (24%) and groundnut (7%) are other oils that contribute to domestic production. Crude palm and soya bean oil are imported mainly from Malaysia, Indonesia, Argentina and Brazil, and form shares of 62% and 21% of edible oil imports, respectively.
Because of high import dependence, edible oil imports are estimated to be worth around Rs 1.5 trillion in 2021-22. India imports 13 million tonne of edible oil annually. India depends on Ukraine for sunflower oil, which had a 15% share in the edible oil import basket in 2020-21. Ukraine is the largest exporter of sunflower oil in the world, producing almost 46% of the world’s sunflower and safflower oil.