By Faiza Tehseen ISLAMABAD, Nov 05 (INP-WealthPK): Massive growth in imports of edible oil to meet its domestic consumption is draining Pakistan out of its precious foreign exchange. Pakistan is naturally blessed with a favourable environment and climate to grow multiple types and varieties of oilseed crops to not only fulfil its local needs but also export the product to earn handsome foreign exchange. Keeping in view the growing imports, the Directorate of Oilseeds, Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, Faisalabad, is actively working to introduce high-yield and tolerant varieties of oilseeds to meet the growing local consumption. It is hoped that Pakistan can be among the very few countries that are exporting edible oil on a large scale. Edible oil is the third major import after petroleum products and machinery in Pakistan, and to turn this tide, the country will have to explore ways and means to enhance its indigenous production to be able to stabilise the fluctuations in the balance of payments. According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the edible oil import bill was recorded at US$3.087 billion during the July-August period of the 2020-21 fiscal year. The demand for edible oil consumption in Pakistan has been rising by 12.5 per cent since 1970. The following table shows Pakistan’s oil consumption from 2009 to 2020.     https://www.ceicdata.com/datapage/charts/ipc_pakistan_oil-consumption/?type=area&from=2009-12-01&to=2020-12-01&lang=en At present, Pakistan is getting 36 per cent of edible oil from local production, of which share the conventional crop is 85 per cent and the non-conventional 15 per cent. Local production has been growing by 2.56pc against the 7.7pc demand for the last 20 years. Table 1 shows production, supply and demand data statistics. https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/pakistan-oilseeds-and-products-annual-5 To bridge the gap between supply and demand, Pakistan has to import edible oil which consumes a large portion of foreign exchange. All these costs can be well controlled by local production which is not a topic of failure but a matter to be managed. Table 2 Duty structure on oilseed, SBM and edible oil (Figures in % and in Pak rupees). https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/pakistan-oilseeds-and-products-annual-5   The climate of Pakistan is favourable to grow both conventional crops e.g., rapeseed- mustard, groundnut, sesame, cotton etc and non-conventional crops e.g., soybean, sunflower, canola, safflower etc. if grown under proper planning, the high-yielding canola and sunflower oilseed crops can prove enough to cover the ditch between supply and demand of edible oil. Farmers in Pakistan mostly focus on growing traditional grain crops, and consider oilseed crops as a less established crop system. Currently, only 0.754 million hectares of the total cropped area is under oilseed crops e.g., sunflower, rapeseed, sesame, groundnut, linseed, safflower, soybean and castor etc. Edible oil compressed in Pakistan from local oilseed crops is not as harmful to health as the imported palm oil, which starts melting at 40 °C (melting point of ghee or edible oil must not be more than 36 °C). Oilseed production at a massive scale under the patronage of the government could not only generate employment opportunities but also increase the country’s GDP. Pakistan should allocate specific areas for conventional farming of edible oilseeds alongside promoting non-conventional ways of growing oilseed plants. Farmers should be offered subsidies on the purchase of crop inputs, pesticides, loans and training to enhance the production of both conventional and non-conventional varieties of oilseed. The farmers need to be provided with high-yield seeds and modern equipment for planting, harvesting and threshing. Oilseed growers should be offered handsome official rates to encourage them to improve their yields. Incentives should also be given to investors for establishing oilseed extraction/processing plants and refining units.