Andhra Pradesh to fix prices of oil palm soon

Vijayawada: Minister for agriculture, cooperatives, marketing and food Kakani Govardhan Reddy said that the AP government will fix prices acceptable to oil palm farmers and factories.

During a meeting with farmers and representatives of oil palm factories in the secretariat on Friday, he said that the government will scientifically adopt the oil extraction ratio to fix the price and the process will be completed before the season commences.

Govardhan Reddy said that the previous government had left the arrears and dues to farmers and the YSR Congress government led by Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is clearing all pending dues and arrears to farmers. He also said that the government is encouraging drip irrigation and instructed the officials to complete the registration process for drip irrigation.

Andhra Pradesh State Oil Palm Growers Association president B. Veera Raghav Rao said that AP is the only state that produces the best quality of oil palm prunes in India. He said the government should take necessary steps to ensure viability gap funding to the oil palm which would be more beneficial to farmers.

State horticulture commissioner Dr S.S. Sridhar, AP Oil Fed managing director C. Babu Rao, additional directors K. Balaji Nayak and Y. Venkateswarlu and others were present.