Lessons from soybean

India needs to develop its biotechnology capacity for crops like soybean as it has done for rice

- RAMESH CHAND

More than half the vegetable oil India consumes is imported. This requires paying dollars equivalent to 1.31 trillion. The high dependence on import is not only turning costlier but it is also making the country vulnerable to foreign sources of supply and fluctuations in global prices. However, India has the potential to be self-sufficient in edible oil and that will raise the incomes of our farmers.

Attempts have been made since the late 1980s to achieve a breakthrough in oilseeds production to improve self-sufficiency in edible oil, but import dependence has only increased. Once again the "National Mission on Edible Oil" has been launched by the present government to attain Atmanirbharata in edible oil.

Soybean, which occupies the largest area among all oil crops in India and the world, offers interesting lessons. It represents a unique case of agricultural diversification and transformation, using an exotic germplasm, especially in rainfed agriculture. Till the early 1970s, soybean in India was grown in just less than 30,000 hectares—in the hills of Uttarakhand (then part of Uttar Pradesh), Himachal Pradesh, and the Northeast. Today, it is the most important oil crop in India, accounting for 34 per cent of the area under oil crops and 23 per cent of domestic vegetable oil, and more than 50 per cent of oil cake/meal production. The journey of soybean epitomises great success in some respects and a great failure in others. Both have a strong bearing on the heavy dependence of India on the import of edible oil. These are evident from the following facts.