By Qudsia Bano ISLAMABAD, Feb 17 (INP-WealthPK): Pakistan spends a lot of foreign exchange on import of edible oils to meet its rising domestic demand amid low production of oilseeds, thus hurting its economy. Peanut, which is traditionally grown in Pakistan as a nut crop, is now gaining importance as one of the best sources of obtaining oilseed. A renewed focus is now on enhancing the cultivation area of peanut crop with the help of modern technology and expertise of the countries having bumper production of the groundnut to meet the domestic needs of edible oil. The National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) has stressed the need for the ministry of industries and production to come up with innovative options to increase the production of peanut to get enough oilseed for meeting the domestic demand and bringing down the import bill. In this regard, China's Shandong Rainbow Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd plans to forge a Pak-China peanut oil collaboration. "Peanut oil is the best frying oil on the planet. It has a haze point of around 260 degrees Celsius. Peanuts contain more than half of their weight in oil. We can create more by-products for export once we are self-sufficient in peanut production. We can also cut our edible oil import expense,” said Muhammad Jahanzaib, a scientific officer at the Oil Seed Research Programme at the National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC). He revealed that NARC has begun to place a premium on Pakistan's peanut business. "China is one of the world's leading producers of peanuts. They grow peanuts in elevated beds, mulch them, then harvest them with combined harvesters. Cooperation between Pakistan and China in the peanut business has a lot of promise." Peanut is one of the most significant Kharif oilseed crops. It contains 50% oil content compared to 40% for sunflower, 20% for soya bean, and 50% for sesame. The area under peanut crop cultivation is 81.5 million hectares, with an annual production of 91.4 million tonnes and an average dry pod yield of 1,121 kilogrammes per hectare. Rawalpindi division is mostly responsible for its cultivation. Peanut has a high oil content (43-55%) as well as a high protein content (25-28%). Its oil contains around 22% linoleic acid and 61% oleic acid, making it one of the healthiest vegetable oils for human consumption.  Pakistan is a large producer of peanuts, however, due to a variety of biotic and abiotic variables, the farming community has been unable to achieve better yields in comparison to industrialised countries. Use of disease-free seed, soil preparation, seed rate and spacing, sowing method, fertiliser application, irrigation, weeding, disease control, harvesting, threshing, processing, and storage are among the enhanced management methods for the production of quality peanut. Farmers need training in relevant fields to carry out these operations, which is the primary task of extension field employees. Pakistan also has an olive oil production programme, which needs to be implemented in letter and spirit so that more people can be involved in its production to help the country meet its domestic needs and reduce the import bill.