Oilseed crops: Official for increasing cultivation area to reduce $4bn import bill

LAHORE: Increasing area under cultivation of oilseed crops is essential to cut down the annual US$4 billion import bill being spent on importing edible oil.

Secretary Agriculture Punjab Iftikhar Ali Sahoo expressed these views while presiding over a consultative meeting organized for the promotion of oilseeds cultivation at Agriculture House, Lahore today (Wednesday).

He further said demand for oilseeds is increasing all over the world. In Punjab, by increasing the area under cultivation of oil products, we can not only fulfil our own needs of edible oil, but can also possibly earn a lot of foreign exchange, he added.

In the meeting, Director General Agriculture (Extension), Punjab Dr Anjum Ali, Director General Crop Reporting, Punjab Dr Abdul Qayyum and other officers, progressive farmers and stakeholders associated with the oilseeds industry participated.

During the meeting, it was said that Pakistan import about 88 percent of its edible oil requirements. For the promotion of oilseeds cultivation, a National project worth Rs5.11 billion was being implemented under which farmers were being provided subsidy of Rs5,000 per acre on sunflower and canola cultivation and Rs2,000 per acre on sesame cultivation.

Under this project, 50 percent of the machinery of oilseeds was also being provided to the farmers and production competitions were also being organized for healthy competition among the farmers.

As a result of all these incentives, the cultivated area of sunflower and canola had increased by 35 percent, while the cultivated area of sesame had increased by 40 percent, the meeting was informed.

Secretary Agriculture, Punjab Iftikhar Ali Sahoo said that further increase in oilseeds area was the need of the hour so that we can produce our own edible oil for our food needs. He directed the Director General Agriculture Extension to prepare a comprehensive plan to increase the cultivation of oilseeds.

In the meeting, progressive farmers and people associated with the industry informed the Secretary Agriculture about their problems which he assured to resolve under rules.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023