From CK Nayak
NEW DELHI, April 27: Union Minister for DoNER, G Kishan Reddy on Wednesday made it clear that oil palm cultivation in the Northeastern region, which will be coming up in a big way, will be done on waste or unused lands far from forest covers which will remain unaffected.
Under the National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) launched by the Government of India in August last year with the aim of bringing more area under oil palm and reducing dependence on imports of palm oil, special focus has been given to promote oil palm cultivation in the region where waste land or unused land are available, he said.
At present, India has a 3.70 lakh hectare area under oil palm cultivation and the central government proposes to increase it to 10 lakh hectares by covering an additional area of 6.5 lakh hectares under the new scheme, half of which is proposed to be in the NE region, the minister said. The production of crude palm oil is estimated to go up to 11.20 lakh tonnes by 2025-26 and up to 28 lakh tonnes by 2029-30 following implementation of the scheme for which the government has made a financial allocation of Rs 11,040 crore.
Among states in the Northeast region, Mizoram leads in oil palm cultivation with a coverage of around 29,000 hectares. Under the new scheme, a substantial increase has been made in the assistance of inputs/interventions for planting material for oil palm from Rs 12,000 per hectare to Rs 29,000 per hectare.
Special assistance of Rs 250 per plant is also being given to replant old gardens for rejuvenation of old gardens. The government will give a price assurance in the form of viability price to the oil palm farmers for fresh fruit bunches from which oil is extracted to protect the farmers from volatility in international prices of crude palm oil.
The new product will improve the economy of the poor local farmers without causing any harm to the flora and fauna of the Northeast, the minister added.