The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the National Mission on Edible Oils - Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) with a financial outlay of Rs 11,040 crore to increase the production of edible oils in the country.

The new centrally sponsored scheme will have a special focus on the NorthEast region and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. "Due to the heavy dependence on imports for edible oils, it is important to make efforts for increasing the domestic production of edible oils in which increasing area and productivity of oil palm plays an important part," the government said in a release. Out of the financial outlay of Rs 11,040 crore, Rs 8,844 crore will be the share of Centre and Rs 2,196 crore of states, including the viability gap funding.

The scheme proposes to cover an additional area of 6.5 lakh hectare for oil palm till 2025-26 and thereby reaching the target of 10 lakh hectares ultimately. The production of crude palm oil (CPO) is expected to go up to 11.20 lakh tonnes by 2025-26 and up to 28 lakh tonnes by 2029-30.



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