Oil Palm Mission: 47% of This Year's Area Target Covered, Bihar Joins
India has brought about 55,614 hectares of new land under oil palm in the current financial year (2026-27). This is about 47% of the year's target of 1.19 lakh hectares.
The expansion is happening under the National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP), the palm arm of India's mission to grow more of its own cooking oil.
Bihar has joined the oil palm mission. This widens the crop's map beyond its traditional southern and north-eastern states and is expected to help meet the year's target.
Prices paid to farmers for fresh fruit bunches (FFB), the harvested fruit of the oil palm, are about ₹20,000 per tonne, up from about ₹12,500 in 2023. The mission's price support system gives farmers a floor price.
States differ in how well they spend the funds given to them: Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Nagaland and Mizoram are reported to be using funds better than Gujarat and Odisha.
National Mission on Edible Oils – Oilseeds (NMEO-Oilseeds)
India imports more than half of the cooking oil it uses. The National Mission on Edible Oils is the government's plan to cut this dependence by growing more oil at home. It has two arms. NMEO-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) promotes long-lived oil palm plantations, and NMEO-Oilseeds promotes annual crops like mustard, soybean and groundnut. Both are run by the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
The 55,614 hectares added this year come under NMEO-OP's area expansion work. Bihar's entry adds a new state to the mission, and the Viability Price is the reason farmers today get a floor price for their fruit bunches.
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.
The 55,614 hectares added this year are new oil palm plantations that will start giving fruit only after 3 to 4 years. Bihar's entry tests whether the crop can work outside its traditional humid zones, where irrigation and nearby mills will decide success. Higher fruit prices this year make the crop more attractive to farmers.
- Oil palm area added in 2026-27 so far: about 55,614 hectares
- Target for 2026-27: 1.19 lakh hectares (about 47% achieved)
- New state in the mission: Bihar
- FFB price: about ₹20,000 per tonne (about ₹12,500 in 2023)
- NMEO-OP: approved 18 August 2021; ₹11,040 crore; target of 6.5 lakh ha extra by 2025-26
- Viability Price: 14.3% of 5-year average CPO price (WPI adjusted); oil palm year 1 November to 31 October
- India's vegetable oil imports 2024-25: about 16.4 million tonnes, ₹1.61 lakh crore; palm oil about 47% of volume
- Potential oil palm area: 27.99 lakh hectares (ICAR-IIOPR, 2020)