According to the industry, it is important that the government raise the import duty on edible oil to maximum permissible limit of 45-100 per cent and utilise the additional revenue generated by increased import duty for creating "oilseeds and oils development fund" to increase the oilseed yield and extend soft loans for technology upgradation of the oilseeds sector.

This would help in breaking the vicious circle of increase in import of edible oils from year to year.

While the oilseeds extraction industry representatives prefer to remain silent on the industry's contribution to improve the seed availability in the country, they expect the government to take effective steps in this direction.

A similar demand had been put forth last month by the Solvent Extractors' Association (SEA) president Sandeep Bajoria at the inaugural function of Globoil, a three-day seminar held in Mumbai. The seminar was to assess the state of India's edible oils and solvent extracting industry in global perspective.

Replying to the suggestion agriculture secretary P Sankar in his inaugural speech had asked the industry to take necessary initiatives in improving the seed availability in the country.

Mr P Sankar said ,"It would be better if the industry does not constantly harp on the fate of the farmers and seed prices in the wake of increased import of edible oils in the country. As regards increasing the import duty, a high level panel would be in place soon to review the duty periodically".

Despite this, the representatives of the SEA and the Soyabean Processors' Association (SOPA), Indore once again raised the same issue during their meeting last week with the Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha. The delegation was led by Smt Sumitra Mahajan, Hon'ble Minister of State for Human Resource Development, SEA president Sandeep Bajoria, Soybean Processors Association of India chairman OP Goel and others.

According to the SEA, the delegation appraised the finance minister of the impact of excessive import of cheap edible oils, which has created havoc in the domestic sector. `The farmers will suffer yet again this year and may not get the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their produce and discourage and demoralise them from growing oilseeds and it will also have a cascading effect on the rabi oilseed crops'.

With buffer stock of 422 lakh tonnes valued at Rs 33,000 cr there is problem of plenty in case of rice and wheat and the government has to incur carrying cost of over Rs 9,000 cr per annum.

However in the case of oilseeds, the production is much below the minimum requirements, and the country is compelled to import edible oil annually at the cost of over Rs 9,350 cr to meet the ever growing demand.

To overcome this situation and to increase the production of oilseeds, the government must ensure and encourage farmers to switch over from rice and wheat to oilseeds crop by ensuring them reasonable remunerative price.