Do it yourself

Besides the hydrocarbons (crude oil and natural gas), edible oil is perhaps the most critical item for Indian households, where our country is largely dependent on imports. In 2021 we imported ~US$17.5bn worth of animal & vegetable fats and oils. Volume wise, the annual domestic consumption of edible oils is around 25 million tonnes; whereas we produce less than 12 million tonnes. Thus we rely on imports for over half our requirements, making India the third largest vegetable oil importer, behind USA and China, despite a low per capita consumption of edible oil of less than 6gms a day. Despite all efforts to increase the domestic production of edible oils, our imports of edible oil have grown about 175 percent in the past decade. Area under production of oil seeds in India has hardly increased in the past three decades; though the yield has improved. Last year, the central government set a target to bring...