Potential of mustard oil

This country has witnessed from time to time what in plain Bangla is called 'tel nie telesmati' (oily magic!), courtesy of importers and refiners of cooking oil such as soybean and palm oil, the two most affordable varieties. Much as the government may have tried to contain the unpredictability of oil market, it never comes under control. The disappearance magic of oil continues. As long as the quartet has monopoly of the oil market, this magic will not cease to be. Then again, the problem has its origin in the overwhelming dependence of the country on imported oil. The country's domestic production is a negligible 20 per cent of oil mostly coming from mustard and the rest 80 per cent is imported. No wonder, the country has to spend US$2.0 billion on import of cooking oil each year.

Against this background, an initiative was taken earlier to raise the production of oilseeds. True to their commitment to research and development, agricultural scientists came forward to find an answer to the problem. In a land-scarce country where around 70 per cent arable land is allocated for cultivation of paddy, oilseeds barely have a share of 7.0 per cent of land. So, the Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA) and agricultural universities have been carrying out research and experiments with mustard oilseeds. Their efforts have already yielded some positive results.

One of this is the Bina mustard-11 developed by the BINA. This has in its pod as high as 40 oilseeds which again are larger than other varieties developed so far and the traditional local varieties. It can revolutionise the cultivation of oilseeds in the country because of the extraordinary advantage farmers will enjoy on account of early harvest within 80 days from sowing. Thus the scarcity of land can be overcome quite conveniently. Between the cultivation of Aman and Boro, lands in many areas of the country are left fallow for about three months. So, those lands can be used for cultivation of mustard oil in the interim period. Pilot projects in Gopalganj, reportedly implemented successfully, have made farmers and scientists optimistic about the bright future of the crop.

Mustard oil is better than palm oil and soybean but it is not free from one contentious issue. This concerns the concentration of 40-48 per cent erucic acid in some types of the oil, for which the Federal Drug Administration of the USA does not recommend it as cooking oil. However, its benefits are also well recognised. Mustard oil, a 2023 medical review claims, is 'rich in unsaturated fatty acids and relatively low in saturated fats'. The American Heart Association (AHA) finds that monounsaturated fats help reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL) which in common parlance is called 'bad cholesterol' levels. Thus it serves as an agent to lower the risk of cardiac arrest and stroke. Omega-3 fatty acid in mustard oil also has anti-inflammatory properties. All such claims are, however, not without some controversies.

Notwithstanding the controversies, mustard oilseeds now being developed can overcome the harmful agents or acids. Already an agricultural university has developed mustard seeds with very low percentage of erucic acid. Different varieties of Binasarisha developed so far have also shown the presence of lower levels of this harmful acid. The canola variety contains less than 2.0 per cent of erucic acid. So, further experiment with cross-breeding and mutation may yield the right type of mustard oilseed for Bangladesh. By the time, the Bina-11 can be the most suitable candidate for such research and experiment for developing the dream type.

The country must overcome its overwhelming dependence on imported soybean and palm oil. Clearly, mustard oil offers the best alternative. If genetic transformation can be made to remove the high proportion of undesirable fatty acids from mustard, it can give an ideal variety of cooking oil with the potential of meeting at least half the country's requirement within a few years.          

nilratanhalder2000@yahoo.com