The delay in the roll out of the National Oilseed Mission was hurting India’s edible oil security, Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA), the apex body of the Indian vegetable oil industry, said.
“This delay in the announcement is a cause of concern... as raw material supply is reducing and our dependence on import of edible oil is rising year after year,” Atul Chaturvedi, president, SEA said in a letter to Union Ministers of Finance, Agriculture and Consumer Affairs. To curb imports, the SEA had been advocating cultivation of soybean, sunfower, maize and mustard in Punjab and Haryana via a shift in crop pattern from rice in kharif and wheat in rabi season.
