Oil Palm Cultivation in India

The oil palm is a tall tropical tree whose fruit gives the world's most widely used cooking oil, palm oil. It produces far more oil from one hectare of land than any other oil crop. A good plantation can give about 4 to 5 tonnes of palm oil per hectare every year, many times more than crops like mustard or soybean.

India is the world's largest importer of palm oil, so growing more oil palm at home is a central part of India's plan to cut its edible oil import bill.

Why does India want to grow it?

India uses far more cooking oil than it produces, and pays for the rest with foreign exchange. Palm oil is the cheapest edible oil and is used in homes, restaurants, biscuits, snacks, soaps and cosmetics. Most of the world's palm oil comes from just two countries, Indonesia and Malaysia. So any change in their export policy, weather or prices hits Indian kitchens directly. Because oil palm gives so much oil per hectare, even a modest area under it can add a lot to domestic supply.

What kind of plant is it?

The oil palm's scientific name is Elaeis guineensis. It is native to West Africa. It is a perennial crop, which means it lives and gives fruit for many years. Its fruits grow in heavy clusters called fresh fruit bunches (FFB). One fruit gives two different oils:

• Palm oil (crude palm oil, CPO), pressed from the soft, fleshy outer layer of the fruit (the mesocarp).
• Palm kernel oil, pressed from the hard seed (the kernel) inside. A plantation gives about 0.4 to 0.5 tonnes of kernel oil per hectare.

What does the crop need?

Oil palm is a crop of the humid tropics.

• Rainfall: about 2,000 mm a year, spread evenly, without a long dry season. Where rain is less or uneven, it needs irrigation. Drip irrigation guidelines suggest at least about 90 litres of water per palm per day in summer.
• Temperature: best yields come where the average maximum is about 29 to 33°C and the average minimum about 22 to 24°C.
• Soil: deep, moist, well-drained soils rich in organic matter. Sandy coastal soils and heavy clay that holds water are not suitable.
• Planting: palms are planted in a triangle pattern 9 metres apart, which gives about 143 palms per hectare.

How does the crop cycle work?

Think of it like planting a mango orchard, not sowing wheat. The farmer waits years before the first real harvest, then earns for decades.

1. Gestation (waiting) period: the palm starts giving harvestable bunches about 3 to 4 years after planting. Full yield comes after about 6 to 7 years.
2. Productive life: the palm keeps yielding for about 25 years or more. A well-kept, mature plantation can give around 20 to 30 tonnes of FFB per hectare per year.
3. Harvest: ripe bunches are cut every 7 to 14 days.
4. Processing within 24 hours: after harvest, the fruit starts to spoil fast. Its free fatty acid level rises and oil quality falls. So bunches must reach a processing mill within about 24 hours. This is why oil palm can grow only where a mill is nearby, and why the mission links farmers to processing companies in fixed factory zones.

Where did it come from in India?

ICAR began oil palm research in 1975 at the Central Plantation Crops Research Institute centre at Palode, Kerala. Plantations were also set up in Kerala and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the 1970s. Government support then moved through a series of schemes:

• Oil Palm Development Programme (OPDP): 1991-92 to 2003-04
• ISOPOM (Integrated Scheme of Oilseeds, Pulses, Oil Palm and Maize): 2004-05 to 2013-14
• Oil Palm Area Expansion (OPAE): 2011-12 to 2013-14
• National Mission on Oilseeds and Oil Palm (NMOOP): from 2014-15
• National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP): from August 2021

India's main research body for the crop is the ICAR-Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research (IIOPR) at Pedavegi, Andhra Pradesh. It started in 1995 as a national research centre and was later upgraded to an institute.

Where can it be grown in India?

A reassessment committee of ICAR-IIOPR in 2020 found about 27.99 lakh hectares of land in 22 states suitable for oil palm. About 9.62 lakh hectares of this lies in the North-Eastern states. This is why the mission gives the North-East special attention.

• Andhra Pradesh is by far the largest producer, giving roughly 80% of India's crude palm oil. Telangana is the next big state.
• Other states with oil palm include Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Odisha, Gujarat, Mizoram, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Tripura and, now, Bihar.

Commonly confused concepts

• Oil palm vs coconut palm: Both are palms, but coconut (Cocos nucifera) gives coconut oil from dried coconut (copra). Oil palm gives palm oil and palm kernel oil.
• Palm oil vs palm kernel oil: Palm oil comes from the fleshy outer part of the fruit; palm kernel oil comes from the seed inside.
• CPO vs palmolein: CPO is the crude oil from the mill. Palmolein is the liquid part separated after refining, which is the form commonly sold as cooking oil.
• Perennial vs annual oilseeds: Mustard, soybean and groundnut are annual crops, sown and harvested within one season. Oil palm is perennial, with a long wait before the first harvest and decades of yield.
• Viability Price vs Minimum Support Price (MSP): MSP is announced for crops like mustard and groundnut, and the government may buy at that price. The oil palm Viability Price is not a purchase price: private processors buy the fruit, and the government only pays farmers the gap if the processors' price falls short.

Issues, criticism and the way forward

• Long wait for income: Farmers earn nothing much for 3 to 4 years. Small farmers find this hard, so the mission gives help for planting material and allows short crops to be grown between young palms (intercropping).
• Water use: Oil palm needs a lot of water. In dry regions, it depends on irrigation, which can put pressure on groundwater.
• Ecology and biodiversity: In Indonesia and Malaysia, oil palm expansion is linked with large-scale clearing of rainforests. Environmental groups warn that plantations in the biodiversity-rich North-East and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands could cause similar damage. In 2002, the Supreme Court, relying on the Shekhar Singh Commission's report, stopped non-native plantations (including oil palm) on forest land in the Andamans. The Andaman administration's later request to revive plantations is pending, and the court's Central Empowered Committee has opposed it.
• Price risk from imports: When the government cuts the import duty on crude palm oil, world palm oil becomes cheaper in India. This lowers the domestic CPO price and the price farmers get for their fruit, which can discourage new planting.
• Area is growing faster than output: Many new plantations are still young and not yet yielding, so oil production lags behind area growth.
• Way forward: Experts suggest planting only on degraded or already-cultivated land (never on forests), using good-quality seedlings, ensuring mills are set up close to new plantations, keeping import duty policy stable, and following sustainability certification.

Concepts to Know

• Fresh Fruit Bunch (FFB): The heavy cluster of oil palm fruits that farmers harvest and sell to mills.
• Crude Palm Oil (CPO): The unrefined oil the mill extracts from the fruit's fleshy layer; it is later refined for cooking.
• Gestation period: The waiting time between planting a tree crop and its first harvest.
• Perennial crop: A crop that lives and gives produce for many years, like mango, tea or oil palm.
• Free fatty acids: Compounds that form when fruit oil starts to break down; a high level means poorer quality oil.
• Import duty: A tax the government charges on goods brought in from abroad; a lower duty makes imports cheaper.