Telangana efforts to promote oil palm cultivation win praise from Tomar
Hyderabad: Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has appreciated the efforts made by the Telangana government to increase palm oil production, adding that he sees Telangana as an emerging leader in oil palm production.
He called upon the state to adopt and promote natural farming to reduce the production cost without hampering overall production.
Tomar addressed the National Mission on Edible Oil - Oil Palm Business Summit for states held here on Tuesday.
Aiming to give out detailed information on the newly launched centrally sponsored scheme on edible oils, the Centre is organising business summits across the country. This was the second such summit, the first held in Guwahati for the North Eastern states in early October this year.
Tomar assured all the state governments that there will be no shortage of resources for the successful implementation of the mission. He said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, the Centre wants to make India self-reliant in the field of palm oil.
“Currently about 3 lakh hectares of land is under palm oil cultivation while studies have shown that about 28 lakh hectares of land is suitable for this in the country. It is our mission to bring all these land under cultivation to make India Aatmanirbhar in edible oil,” said Tomar.
State agriculture minister Niranjan Reddy highlighted the efforts of the Telangana government for promoting oil palm plantation in the state and providing higher price to farmers for the FFBs (Fresh Fruit Bunches) of oil palm. Telangana has drawn up an ambitious plan to undertake oil palm cultivation on 30 lakh acres and sought funds from the Centre under the National Mission to meet this target. He urged the Centre to fix a minimum price of Rs 15,000 per tonne for FFBs of oil palm to encourage farmers undertake this cultivation.
