The need for a “zero edible oil import” plan was discussed by commerce minister Piyush Goyal at an inter-ministerial meeting on 5th November, 2019 and the commerce ministry asked the agriculture ministry to prepare a road map for India to attain self-sufficiency in edible oil production. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while presenting the budget in 2019, had also urged farmers to make India self-sufficient in edible oil production and mentioned that the government is taking serious steps for attaining same. So, objective of our study is to come up with pragmatic and action-oriented reforms to make India Atmanirbhar in Oilseeds production to increase the domestic availability of edible oil and reduce its import dependency.
For the same, we reached to experts in this sector, conducted a national level webinar among the oilseed farmers to understand their challenges, industries and other stakeholders’ as well as referred to various ministry reports of both national & international level. Submitted our study report to Ministry of Home Affairs & Ministry of MSME, to consider our suggestions and take the needed action to reduce India’s dependency on import.