A team of 300 farmers from Nirmal district led by Minister for Endowments, Forests, Environment and Law A. Indrakaran Reddy visited oilpalm plantations and factory in Aswaraopet area in Bhadradri-Kothagudem district on Sunday as a study tour for awareness on taking up its cultivaiton.
The farmer team first visited the palm oil factory at Dammapeta and enquired about how farmers were shifting the palm oil fruit bunches from their fields to factory, the processing of bunches that arrived from the field and yield of oil from a tonne of oil palm bunches.
During their visit to oil palm nursery at Allipalli, they enquired about raising nurseries, farming practices followed in oil palm cultivation, use of nutrients and others from the nursery managers. Speaking during the visit, Mr. Indrakaran Reddy said the State Government was encouraging oil palm cultivation as an able alternative to regular crops like paddy since there was huge shortage of oilseeds in the country.
He explained that plans were afoot to taken up oil palm in about 3,000 acres during the coming kharif season and in another 7,000 acres in the rabi season in Nirmal district with nursery linkage from Chepur village of Armoor constituency for the kharif season and Beeravelli village of Sarangapur mandal in Karimnagar district. He stated that efforts were also on to establish an oil palm factory at Nirmal as the oil palm fruit bunches cut from the plant have to be shifted to the factory within 48 hours.
The Minister stated that oil palm plantations would get the first harvest in four years with a yield of 10-15 tonnes per acre and the life span of the plantation would be 30-40 years. Aswaraopet MLA M. Nageswara Rao, Nirmal Rythu Bandhu Samithi present Venkatram Reddy, District Agriculture Officers Anji Prasad and others participated in the visit.
