widthDisputes between the European Union (EU) and major economies in Southeast Asia Palm oil Smoldering, India now wants to infiltrate oil palm cultivation on a large scale. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet has allocated approximately 110 billion rupees (1.3 billion euros) to establish large plantations in the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean.
Overall, the planted area is expected to increase nearly threefold to approximately 1 million hectares-approximately four times the area of Luxembourg. In India, people are angry at the threat of a single culture. In Southeast Asia, they have caused large-scale deforestation and burning of tropical rainforests and peat swamps.
The Indian government plans to triple palm oil production to 3 million tons by 2029. This is to reduce the burden of imports. Palm oil is used not only as a fuel, but also in thousands of products, from chocolate to soap to pizza. On average, German consumers consume about 1.5 kg of palm oil each year. India imports nearly 15 million tons of edible oil every year, about 10 billion U.S. dollars, of which palm oil imports account for the majority. India’s Ministry of Finance has just reduced the import tariffs on crude palm oil by 5%.
Promote planting in the poorer northeast
The archipelago being considered for planting in New Delhi is located in the eastern part of the Indian Ocean, closer to Thailand than to the Indian mainland. The archipelago has a total of 572 islands, of which 38 are uninhabited. New Delhi also hopes to promote planting in poorer agricultural areas in the northeast of the subcontinent.
The main supplier countries are the two largest growers in the world, Indonesia and Malaysia.Two lies I cross. Since 2017, Indonesia has also opposed Europe’s import ban on palm oil before the World Trade Organization (WTO), which can be processed into biofuels. The EU accounts for approximately 15% of the industry’s exports and is Indonesia’s second largest customer after India.
Approximately 40 million tons per year, half of the world’s palm oil production comes from Indonesia. Together with its neighboring country Malaysia, it accounts for 87% of global production. The third is Thailand. This issue is also explosive for Southeast Asia, because the EU has been preparing for a free trade agreement with the region for a long time. However, Asian ministers threatened to boycott the purchase of Airbus planes or cars from European manufacturers. Free trade negotiations that have been delayed for many years will also restart with India. However, there are no plans to export oil there.
Environmentalists are mobilizing against the plan
Huge funds from the Indian government attacked Indonesia and Malaysia. “This will stimulate investment, create jobs, reduce dependence on imports and increase the income of our farmers,” said Agriculture Minister Narendra Singhtomar. India is the world’s largest importer of edible oil. About two-thirds of the consumption of nearly 1.4 billion people comes from imports. Last fiscal year (March 31), the subcontinent imported palm oil worth approximately US$5.8 billion. Plans to expand plantation areas due to taxpayer subsidies are not new. In 2011 and 2014, there are plans to expand the planting area.
Environmentalists in India are mobilizing to oppose the plan because they fear the resemblance to a single culture that is destroying much of Southeast Asia. Among other things, they bet that the Supreme Court must confirm the Cabinet decision. In 2002, he banned the cultivation of “unnatural plants” on islands with fragile ecosystems. Environmentalists worry that monoculture also destroys India’s natural rain forests and the land cultivated by small farmers according to the traditional jhum pattern.
The ancient slash-and-burn system is also used for this; however, depending on the season and year, as many as 30 different plants are grown rhythmically on a small area. R. Shankar Raman, an agronomist at the Nature Conservation Foundation, explained that this slash-and-burn use is different from the forest logging and burning used by palm oil companies for monoculture: “In the Northeast, like other tropical regions, because of bamboo and other trees The growth of arable land followed by secondary forests is relatively fast and dense. Of course, they are not as diverse as undisturbed forests. But in any case, they are much better than oil palm plantations, which are a kind of permanent Form of deforestation.”
This adaptation extends to the ownership structure: Although the jhum plantation area belongs to the village, the plantation is in the hands of the company—for example, women have lost the role of co-owner. However, other scientists have suggested converting areas where sunflowers or rapeseed are grown to palm oil plantations because these plantations are more productive.
