The Telangana state government has set a target to plant 2 million hectares of oil palm in the state within the next three years.
Post Date – 11:30 PM, Thursday – 11/24/22
file photo
by Anil Kumar
Hyderabad: Given its wide application and commercial value, the Telangana state government has set a target of planting 2 million hectares of oil palm in the state in the next three years.
According to a Horticultural Ministry official, the government plans to plant 300,000 acres of oil palm in 2022-23, 700,000 acres in 2023-24 and 1 million acres in 2024-25. The total funding required for the ambitious scheme will be Rs 7.8 billion in 2022-23, Rs 19.7 billion in 2023-24 and Rs 31 billion in 2024-25.
As of now, Telangana has about 61,000 acres of oil palm planted across Khammam, Bhadradri Kothagudem, Nalgonda and Suryapet districts. The government plans to plant oil palm in Nirmal (33,520 hectares), Mahababad (28,164 hectares), Kamareddy (26,337 hectares), Warangal-Rural (23,118 hectares) and Nizamabad (22,218 hectares).
The state government has notified 26 districts to plant oil palm and instructed district collectors to encourage farmers to plant on a large scale. Currently, oil palm is priced at Rs 19,000 per tonne in the open market and yields about 20 tonnes per acre, according to horticulture officials.
A survey by the National Oilseeds and Oil Palm Board also found that 246 of the state’s 563 rural areas have soil and weather conditions suitable for growing the crop.
According to a Ministry of Horticulture official, following the reassessment of the potential oil palm area in the country by the reassessment committee headed by BMC Reddy, the Center notified an additional potential area in Telangana for oil palm expansion in 2020. The state government has since drawn up a plan to incorporate all identified areas into oil palm plantations.
The government has allocated factory areas to companies to expand oil palm acreage in newly identified potential areas. Currently, about 14 companies are engaged in oil palm production in the state.
The state government has also been encouraging progressive farmers to plant oil palm so that they can be a role model for other farmers. As part of the government’s incentive scheme, the authorities are offering oil palm plants worth Rs 200 at a price of Rs 25 per plant. The government provides Rs 36,000, which includes a subsidy of Rs 24,000 for the first year and Rs 5,000 for planting in the second and third years. However, the authorities will only allow oil palm cultivation after farmers install water-saving micro-irrigation systems.
