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Agriculture & Food Management 239

7.8 As per the First Advance Estimates for 2021-22 (kharif only), total foodgrain production
in the country is estimated at a record level of 150.50 million tonnes which is higher by 0.94
million tonnes than kharif foodgrain production of 2020-21.
Edible Oils

7.9 India is one of the major oilseeds growing country. As may be seen from the Figure 7,
the oilseed production in India has steadily increased since 2016-17 onward after showing a
fluctuating trend prior to that. The oilseed production in India has grown by almost 43 per cent
from 2015-16 to 2020-21. The oil production in India has however lagged behind its consumption
necessitating import of edible oils (Figure 8).

7.10 India is the world’s second largest consumer and number one importer of vegetable oil. As
urbanisation increases in developing countries, dietary habits and traditional meal patterns are
expected to shift towards processed foods that have a high content of vegetable oil. Vegetable
oil consumption in India is, therefore, expected to remain high due to high population growth
and consequent urbanisation. As per the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2021-2030, India is
projected to maintain a high per capita vegetable oil consumption growth of 2.6 per cent per
annum reaching 14 kg/capita by 2030 necessitating a high import growth of 3.4 per cent per
annum.

Figure 7: Trend in Production of Oilseeds (Million Tonnes)

Source: Based on data of 4th Advanced Estimates as on Directorate of Economics & Statistics Website.

Figure 8: Production & Import of Oil (Million Tonnes).

Source: Based on data of Agricultural Statistics at Glance, 2020.