Taking forward the recent Cabinet decision to promote oil palm cultivation in 20 lakh acres in four years, Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy has asked farmers interested in oil crop plantation to enrol their names with the Agriculture Department so that an educational tour to the plantations is arranged at government cost.
In a meeting on scaling up oil palm cultivation in the State on Saturday, he said the government was also encouraging farmers to take up cultivation of other oil seeds, including groundnut, sunflower, safflower and sesame. He explained that the Centre was spending ₹70,000 crore on the import of edible oils every year as production of oil seed is very low in the country.
Against the necessity of oil palm plantations in at least 80 lakh acres, it was being raised only in 8 lakh acres now and that was the reason why Telangana was planning to promote it in 20 lakh acres. He stated that the market rate of a tonne of oil palm bunches was ₹19,000 and the yield per acre would be 15 to 20 tonnes per acre.
The State government would give ₹36,000 per acre as subsidy during the first three years of the plantation, he explained.
Research had found that the content of oil (extraction rate) was high in the bunches in Telangana. The government would also tie up the plantation cultivation with employment guarantee scheme for digging of pits, micro irrigation/drip implements on subsidy and arrange loans from banks.
He stated that Oilfed would also raise its own plantations in 2 lakh acres to ensure seamless supply of raw material. It is being raised only in about 40,000 acres now. Chairman of Oilfed K. Ramakrishna Reddy, Director of Horticulture L. Venkatrami Reddy, Managing Director M. Surender, Joint Director Sarojini and others attended the meeting.
