A Hobbson Choice : Oil for Food or Oil for Fuel ? (India)

Oil is central to the economy. Be it the oil for food or oil for fuel. In both the cases the country is dependant on imports.

We import about 70% of petroleum products to meet our energy needs. Our import of petroleum products in the first six months of the current fiscal (2007-08) increased to $ 31399.22 million from $ 29003.64 million in the same period last fiscal. Our import of vegetable oils for solely meeting the needs of cooking is on a rising trend. The import of vegetable oils in the period November 2006 to October 2007 has shot up to 4,213,724 tonne as compared to 3,780,112 tonne in the same period in the previous year. We also import about 600,000 tonne non-edible oils annually for manufacture of soap, cosmetics and other items.
The figures show the extent our import dependency for oil. This does not augur well. It is high time to think of achieving at least near self-sufficiency in either one of the sector of the oil economy. For all considerations, oil for food should be given the top priority. In this sector, the country has the potential to achieve self-sufficiency, provided appropriate policy support and incentives are given. The Technology Mission on Oilseeds could bring the country to a level of near self-sufficiency which was aborted by policy of import liberalization in 1990s and we are now heavily paying for this wrong policy.

The import of fossil oil for energy is definitely more in dollar terms. But in the case of edible oil imports it is the issue of food security. While energy security is important, food security is vital. While there are a number of options available for ensuring energy security, the options for ensuring food security is very narrow, particularly with the decline in area under cultivation. However, the government has failed to distinguish between food and energy security in the right perspectives.

The government has now embarked on a massive programme for ensuring energy security through largescale cultivation of Jatropha for producing bio-fuels. However, there are some right thinking persons in the government who have a different view.

The government’s energy adviser, Surya P Sethi views that food and water security concerns are as critical as energy security.

Criticising the exaggerated claims of the proponents of bio-energy about availability of waste and marginal lands, availability of plant varieties and germplasm that need practically no water for growth, yield levels, costs and most importantly the benign nature of bio-energy, Sethi says that these claims are however not based on rigorous research.

According to him if 60 million hectares of land is used for energy plantation like Jatropha Carcus and other crops), the commercial bio-energy produced would meet only 29% to 35% of country’’s energy needs even 25 years from today. Data on annual bio-diesel yields from Jatropha ranges from a low of 0.3 tonne to one tonne per hectare.

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