**Abstract**

India is one of the largest producers and consumers of edible oils and fats in the world. It contributes to about 7–8% of the world's oilseeds and 6–7% of the global vegetable oils and is the fifth largest edible oil economy in the world. Even though India occupies a prominent position in the global oilseed production, its average yield for major oilseeds is 40–60% below the world average and has been growing at a slow pace. India is having rich agroecological diversity and is ideally suited for growing all major oil seed crops. It is reported that India excessively import edible oil such as palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia and soybean oil from Argentina because the average yield of many of these oil seed crops is very low, compared to other crops like palm oil. This stressful situation is further aggravated by some traders who indulge in malpractices of adulteration of these oils with cheaper oils and synthetic colors for economic benefit. This chapter discusses the state-of-the-art of crop management and processing of palm oil, which is considered as the future crop.

**Keywords:** edible oils, oilseeds, palm oil and processing

### **1. Introduction**

Being the fifth largest edible oil economy in the world, India contributes to about 7–8% of the world's oilseeds and about 6–7% of the global vegetable oils. Even after occupying a prominent position in the global oilseed production, India's average yield for major oilseeds is 40–60 percent below the world average and has been growing at a slow pace. The majority of edible oil imports of India are palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia and soybean oil from Argentina because the average yield of many of these oil seed crops (ground nut, mustard or rape seed, sunflower, sesame, safflower, and niger) is very low, compared with other crops like Palm oil. It is the highest edible oilyielding crop giving up to 5–6 tonnes of oil per hectare per year among the vegetable oil-giving crops under the good agricultural management practices [1]. Palm oil is well received by consumers, especially as a means of cooking due to its value benefits and price advantage. It is a good raw material for the production of cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, etc. In general, it can be said that palm oil is a source of health

and nutrition improvement, value addition, recycling of environmentally friendly waste, a source of diversification, import substitution, creation, and sustainability.
