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Enhancing edible oil production
By Bilal Hassan
The population of Pakistan has increased from 32.5 million in
1947 to 149.5 million currently. The consumption of edible
oil has also been increased proportionally from 0.3 million
tons to 1.95 million tons during the last two decades. The
population is increasing at a rapid rate but the production
is meagre and fluctuating.
The total production of edible oil in the country is 550,000
tons, about 29 per cent of the domestic requirements, while
about 71 per cent is met through imports. It is either
directly imported or is crushed from the imported seeds of
sunflower and canola.
Palm oil is imported from Malaysia, Norway, Singapore and
South Korea and soybean from Malaysia, Argentina, Singapore
and Switzerland. Huge amount of national income is spent on
imports. The edible oil import bill had increased from Rs2.3
billion in 1979-1980 to Rs40.5 billion in 1998-1999. It is
the second most important item on import list consuming a
considerable foreign exchange. There are two sources of
edible oil, conventional and non-conventional crops.
The former are cultivated traditionally and include
cottonseed, rapeseed, mustard, sesame and groundnut.
sunflower, safflower and soybean are non-conventional
introduced in 60s in the backdrop of green revolution. The
contribution of cottonseed and rapeseed in total domestic
requirements is 80 per cent. Sesame and corn oil contribute
three per cent. On the other hand, the contribution of
non-conventional crops is only 17 per cent.
During the course of history, several governments have tried
to increase its production. Efforts were made to increase
the area under non-conventional crops. Neither area nor
production could increase to a greater extent. Production is
lower than the potential. In the same way, yield of oil
crops per unit area is lower than other counties.
A number of factors are contributing to this poor situation.
Sunflower is an important crop having potential to become
major oil seed crop. However, its sowing season overlaps the
sowing season of wheat. Owing to better support prices and
marketing system available for wheat, farmers are bound to
grow wheat.
In cotton zone, farmers are reluctant to grow sunflower
because its maturity period overlaps the sowing season of
cotton and thus causes delay in the sowing of the latter.
This delay results in significant reduction of lint yield.
Sunflower is an exhaustive crop. It consumes a large amount
of nutrients essential from growth and depletes the soil
from the nutrients. Farmers add huge amount of fertilizers
to get good yield of cotton. After harvesting of sunflower,
the attack of inset, pest and diseases increase on cotton
crop.
Non-availability of modern technology for sunflower and
canola is an impediment to increase the area under these
crops. Cultivation practices are not standardized and
varieties for different climatic zones are not evolved.
Average yields are very low. The yields of rapeseed,
cottonseed, sunflower, soybean and canola is 750, 1244,
1810, 1207 and 1246 kilograms per hectares, respectively.
The non-availability of hybrid seeds, high cost of foreign
imported hybrid seed, high cost of storage, lack of drying
facilities, lack of modern production technology, use of
marginal lands, non-availability of short duration
varieties, lack of rhizobium inoculum, low prices of
farmers' produce and high harvesting cost are factors
hindering the farmers to adopt non-conventional oilseed
crops in crop rotation. It is a high time that this poor
situation was averted to meet domestic demand.
It is important to popularize the cultivation of sunflower
among the farming community. Evolution of early maturing
varieties, stabilization of support prices and strengthening
of the marketing system are incentives that may prove
helpful in this direction. It also important to prevent the
exploitation of growers. It is a usual practice that
importers of edible oil decrease the prices of edible oil as
the maturity period of oil seed crops approaches. The
government should establish the purchasing centres to help
farmers.
Courtesy:
The DAWN
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Pakissan.com;
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