Carrying capacity of Indian agriculture: oilseeds

The carrying capacity of Indian agriculture to support oilseeds production to meet the vegetable oil needs of the Indian population has been considered in the context of available sources of oil from oilseed and nonoilseed origins. India needs to produce 17.84 Mt of vegetable oils to meet the nutritional fat needs of projected population of 1685 million by 2050. This can be easily achieved from various sources like annual oilseeds and also from supplementary sources of oil like rice bran, cottonseed, coconut, oil palm, corn, etc. However, the actual vegetable oil consumption has already exceeded the nutritional needs by a large margin and is likely to further go up sharply in the years to come in response to income growth. This requirement will be difficult to meet by the Indian agriculture given the current status of resources, technology and management.

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