Pakistan is basically an agricultural country, yet we are forced to import large quantities of different agricultural commodities. The big holes like import of edible oil, fertilizer, tea, pulses and pesticides can be plugged systematically and diligently by reorienting and streamlining the agricultural sector. We have all the capabilities to produce much more than our requirements besides substantial spare quantities for export purposes.

Lets us now consider the edible oil self-sufficiency. The edible oil is an important constituent of our daily diet. As in our country it is customary that no food can be prepared without the use of shortenings. Increase in demand consequently lead to increased import of edible oil at a rapid pace, when local production fails to bridge the consumption requirements. The cotton seed oil has played vital role in vegetable ghee production. When cotton production is less, the oil production is affected therefore, we are forced to import more of it. It is noteworthy that a significant portion of cotton seed, rape seed, and mustard oil goes un extracted with cake. In order to curb such wastage the obsolete expellers are renovated and improved so that precious oil does not go as waste with the seed cake. At the same time from now onwards solvent plants may be established so as to eliminate the wastage, which undoubtedly will result in considerable reduction in its import.

The governments in the past never made efforts for adequate production of edible oil crops. The import of soybean oil costs Rs 23 and palm oil around Rs 19 per liter. With very heavy duties and taxes including the recent imposition of GST, each liter of edible oil is, marketed for over Rs80. Who pockets such huge differences in the import price and the domestic price of vegetable ghee? Is it the manufacturer pocketing the difference or someone else? The poor masses of the country have the right to know who are those robbing the hard earned money so mercilessly, when helpless masses are struggling so hard to make both ends meet. According to official data available we imported 814 thousand tons soybean and palm oil worth Rs6.023 billion in the year 1985-86. The volume and the value of edible oil is increasing at fast pace with passage of time. Imports exceeded 1.3 million tons of oil worth Rs40.54 billion during 1998-99, the second highest bill after fossil fuel. So far, during the past 15 years since 1985-86 to 1999-2000, we imported a total of 15.88 million tons of edible oil worth Rs 261 billion which comes to almost one-third of the pre sent federal budget. The import of edible oil in such huge quantities and amount is indeed an enormous drain on the economy. If such imports go unabated, it will hamper the development.

Other than cotton there are a number of crops which provide edible oil on commercial scale. These include rape seed, mustard, sunflower, soybean, ground nut, sesam, safflower and palm oil. The direct consumption of raw repassed and mustard oil is injurious for human health because of high sulphur contents. The productions of both rape seed and mustard is almost stagnant and has no significant role in ghee industry. Where as ground nut and sesam are directly consumed without extracting oil and they are not available in larger quantities for commercial exploitation. The safflower is not commonly grown in the country, although it has bright future because “pohalli” which is weed found extensively in “Potohar”. However, on the other hand, soybean has a bright future, but unfortunately its introduction was half heatedly tested without any spade work long time back by ADBP in collaboration with a Pakistani private company. At some farms, its cultivation miserably failed due to many factors predominantly due to crowding of weeds. On the other hand, certain growers harvested as high as 20 maunds yield per acre, but failed to market their produce.

The sunflower, an important oil crop was sown on larger area in former USSR followed by USA, Romania, Turkey and Spain. Its life cycle ranges from 90-110 days. It is a two seasons, spring and kharif crop. During spring it can be sown in January, February or March depending upon the climatic zone. Since sun flower is highly cross pollinated, hence hybrid seed gives maximum yield; therefore the seed has to be replaced each season. Its seed is imported by multinationals at high cost which can be raised cheaper indigenously.

For its successful cultivation the land has to be ploughed deeply and must be free of weeds. It is an exhaustive crop requiring high amounts of nutrients to reap high yields. It needs 100-150 lbs nitrogen, 50 lbs phosphorus and same amount of potash or in terms of bags i.e. 3 bags of urea, 1 bag TSP and a bag of potassium sulphate may be added per acre. Out of which one-third nitrogen full quantity of phosphorus and potash may be drilled at sowing, one-third nitrogen during growing period and rest at flowering will help to harvest maximum yield. The seed should be sown in rows at a distance of 75 cm and plant to plant at 25 cm. Mostly, it is sown in cotton growing area after harvest of cotton. Its area progressively increased from almost 20,000 hectares in 1985-86 to almost 1,44000 hectares for 1998-99. Its area considerably declined by about 40,000 hectares in the very next year especially in Punjab. The sun flower crop has many hazards namely it delays the cotton sowing, it is an alternate host of cotton insects. The birds do cause great damage by eating away its kernels. Of all, the important short coming is poor marketing system. In my opinion sun flower may not be cultivated in cotton growing area otherwise it will devastate the cotton crop by providing multiplication ground to insects. In order to safe guard the future of cotton, sunflower may be sown in areas other than the cotton zone. Since un flower, rape seed and mustard are highly cross pollinated, hence their yield can be increased significantly if honey bees are used for effective pollination. The bees will have double benefit of increase yield of crop and higher honey production. The rape seed and mustard start blooming in January through February. In Potohar it is used as mixed crop with wheat, rather the farmers may be guided to grow solid blocks. To solve the acute edible oil production problem we must improve the yield of oil crops which undoubtedly has abundantly high potential to produce more than 3 times what it is harvested at this time.

Under present circumstances the government should spend more on research and development of edible oil crops by increasing the area and yield per unit, so that enormous burden on the exchequer may be relieved. The growers may be given substantial incentives in the form of subsidy on seed, fertilizers etc besides ensuring minimum support price. In this way the farming community and the country will at large prosper.