About Oil Palm

• Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis), originated from West Africa is comparatively a new crop in India and has highest vegetable oil yielding capability per ha. 
• It produces two distinct oils, i.e. palm oil and palm kernel oil, which are used for culinary as well as industrial purposes. 
• The Oil Palm grows best in areas with a mean maximum temperature of 30-32°C and on an average of at least five hours of sunlight. Oil palm is a humid crop and requires a well distributed rainfall of 200 cm per annum. 
• The adult palms can withstand occasional water logging, but frequent water logged, extremely sandy and hard lateritic soils should be avoided. Best suited soils are moist, well-drained, deep loamy alluvial soils, rich in organic matter with good water permeability. 

Oil palm growing States 

• Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala are major Oil palm growing States and account 98% of total production. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Gujarat and Mizoram have also sizable areas under Oil palm cultivation. 
• Recently, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Nagaland have also initiated Oil palm plantation programs on a large scale. 

About NMEO-OP

• In 2021, the Government of India launched the National Edible Oil Mission-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) to boost domestic oilseed production and make the country self-sufficient in cooking oils. 
• Under the mission, the government aims to increase the oil palm production area to 10 lakh ha., and boost the Crude Palm Oil production to 11.20 lakh tonnes by 2025-26.
• With palm oil having 55 per cent share in total edible oil imports, NMEO-OP would ensure that farmers get all facilities, from quality seeds to technology to promote cultivation of palm and other oil seeds.
• The strategy to implement the NMEO-OP will include increasing production of seedlings by establishment of seed garden, nurseries of oil palm to assure domestic availability of seedlings.

Funding Pattern

• NMEO-OP is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme and the cost will be shared as 60:40 between the Central and the State Government for General states and 90:10 for NE states and 100% for UTs and for central agencies.