Pakistan Oil Development Board (PODB) has evolved a strategy to enhance production of edible oil by promoting cultivation of canola and oil palm to meet domestic requirement of 2.199 million tons every year.
About 0.641 million tons is produced by the local growers while the remaining 1.558 million tons is imported to bridge the gap between the consumption and production of the edible oil.
Abdul Rauf Khan, Managing Director, Pakistan Oil Development Board (PODB) stated this while talking to APP here on Wednesday.
He said a quantity of 0.219 million tons of the available edible oil is being utilised in industrial use whereas remaining 1.980 million tons is being consumed for the domestic purposes.
"About 70 percent of our domestic requirement is being met through imports which cost Rs 22 billion every year while the remaining 30 percent edible oil comes from local production. The edible oils requirements exceed 2.2 million tons per year in next five years at the present annual growth of 3 percent," he added.
He said canola and sunflower were cultivated on 122,000 acres and 281,000 acres respectively during 2001-02.
MD PODB said that the oil seed production is gradually increasing and due to favourable climatic conditions, more rains and higher prices in the international market the production of canola oil would be higher than the previous years.
"When PODB was set up in 1994 the area under oil seed cultivation was 1,93,000 acres which has now been expanded to 6,21,000 acres owing to proper planning and attention for the development of the sector," he added.
He said canola cultivation required one and a half kg seed for cultivation over one acre of land.
PODB has developed new varieties of canola and oil palm with indigenous resources, he said adding, these varieties include synthetic as well as hybrid varieties, adding he said, local canola varieties have performed better than the imported varieties cultivated at various locations in the country under difference agro-ecological conditions and these local varieties are fully acclimatised to local environment.
Local seed of synthetic types costs Rs 50 as compared to the international price of Rs 180 to 250 per kg. Local hybrid seed of canola costs Rs 150, he added.
Rauf Khan said there is a vast potential to increase production of canola oil and main thrust is being laid for replacement of sarson acreage by canola cultivation.
He said canola crop can be grown throughout the country and it requires minimum three irrigation's at the time of its sowing, flowering and seed formation.
"Shattering in canola can be controlled by harvesting when 35 percent pods get mature. Canola produce has an attractive market and its disposal does not pose any problem unlike previous years," he added.
He said breeders have worked to improve the rapeseed and mustard crops and "double zero" or more precisely "double low" canola varieties have been developed.
Oil quality of canola is superior and comparable to that of world's best oils. Oil are fats with two types of fatty acids; saturated and unsaturated, the latter being easily absorbable by the human body. Contrarily, the saturated fats accumulate in human body and cause different diseases expect in case of hard exercises where these get catabolised.
According to international research by doctors and researchers, canola oil has unique property of reducing the blood cholesterol levels thus minimising the risk of coronary heart diseases.
In Pakistan canola cultivation started in 1985-86 on experimental basis with imported varieties. Commercial cultivation of canola started in Pakistan in 1995 when it was planted on 100,000 acres compared to 8,000 acres of 1994. Now canola has become a popular oilseed crop in Pakistan.
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