Oil Grows On Trees

Tree-borne oilseeds can not only reduce India's import dependency for vegetable oils, but also provide livelihood to tribal communities

- Ishan Kukreti

AS INDIA struggles to grapple with its growing imports for vegetable oil—over 67 percent of our current demand is met by imports—a hidden source of unlimited potential lies untapped. Tree-borne oilseeds (TBOS), a minor forest produce, can significantly contribute to averting this situation. TBOS are shed naturally by trees and are mostly collected by forest-dependent tribal communities.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare’s National Mission on Oil Seeds and Oil Palm (nmoop), India has about 10 TBO varieties, which include sal (Shorea robusta), neem (Azadi-rachta indica), mahua (Madhuca longifolia), karanj (Pongamia pinnata) and kokum (Garcinia indica). “We collect just 0.5 million tonnes of TBOS a year, while there is a potential to collect 3.5 million tonnes,” says B V Mehta, executive director, Solvent Extractors’ Association of India, the country’s premier vegetable oil producers’ association. A 2008 report by the Forest Governance Learning Group, an international initiative that works with forest dwellers, says India can produce 0.18 million tonnes of sal fat (unprocessed sal oil) each year against the current production of 6,0009,000 tonnes.