KOHIMA: Nagaland has vast potential for palm oil cultivation which could change the economic profile of farmers, said P Rethinam, founder Director of National Research Centre (NRC) for Oil Palm and also a Plantation Crop Management Specialist.
In a meeting at Dimapur with Nasgaland Horticulture Department officials Dr Rethinam said a team constituted to identify potential areas for palm oil cultivation had visited Nuiland area, Old Ralan, Yangpha village under Wokha district and Dhansiri area.
It found that these areas had positive conditions for the cultivation of palm oil. Expressing that political will and determination were required for making the project successful, he explained that palm oil cultivation had lesser pests and diseases related problems, thereby resulting in the creation of additional income in pre-bearing years.
Dr Rethinam emphasized that there would be no pilferage as the oil palm raw fruit was not edible and could not be sold in the open market.
Harvesting at fortnightly intervals and lifting at farm-gate resulted in regular income almost round the year, he opined.
Claiming that palm oil earned more income per hectare than most of the conventional crops, he assured that there would be no marketing problems. According to the potential areas identifying team, Nagaland would be much more prospective than a state like Mizoram where plantation had already begun. This was because Nagaland had the climatic conditions at lower elevations with good irrigation source and suitable lands. The team had already visited Mizoram and Meghalaya and would now head for Tripura. (UNI)
