What is in news : Recently, the Prime Minister has announced a new national initiative on palm oil production to help increase farm incomes. The scheme, called National Edible Oil Mission-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP), for self-reliance in edible oil involves investment of over Rs. 11,000 crore (over a five year period).

Aims:

• To harness domestic edible oil prices that are dictated by expensive palm oil imports.
• To raise the domestic production of palm oil by three times to 11 lakh MT by 2025-26.
• This will involve raising the area under oil palm cultivation to 10 lakh hectares by 2025-26 and 16.7 lakh hectares by 2029-30.

Features:

• The special emphasis of the scheme will be in India’s north-eastern states and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands due to the conducive weather conditions in the regions.
• Under the scheme, oil palm farmers will be provided financial assistance and will get remuneration under a price and viability formula.