Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) will launch ''National Oilseed Development Projects'' across the country to encourage oilseed cultivation.
An official source in Pakistan Oilseed Development Board (PODB) told APP here on Sunday that these projects will be completed within five years and will enable the country to produce 50 percent of domestic consumption of edible oil. He said that the main objective of these projects are to encourage growers to cultivate oilseed in the country to save huge amount being spent on edible oil import.
Pakistan produces only 28 percent edible oil with its domestic resources, while about 72 percent is imported to fulfil the domestic consumption, he added.
He said that Pakistan annually spent about $1.3 billion on the import of edible oil, which increases the import bill of the country. He informed that total area under sunflower cultivation during 2007-08 was about 1,124,000 hectares, while canola seed was cultivated over 401,000 hectares of land. About 696,000 metric tons sunflower and about 218,000 metric tons of canola have been procured so far.