Agriculture Minister Niranjan Reddy denies scrapping oil palm subsidy

Hyderabad: State Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy on Friday dismissed reports that the State government has scrapped subsidies to oil palm cultivation. He said every oil palm cultivating farmer will be given Rs 49,000 per acre as subsidy. There is no policy change, he asserted, dismissing reports of scrapping the subsidy as baseless.

He said the government has decided to encourage oil palm cultivation after duly considering its demand, and to ensure farmers get more income.

Reddy recalled that the government is a pro-farmer and introduced several schemes for their welfare, unlike any other State in the country.

The minister said there are 26.81 lakh bore wells across the State. The government is bearing Rs 10,000 crore annually to provide free 24-hour quality power to them. That apart, the State has been spending Rs 1,500 crore on the Rythu Bhima and providing Rs 15,000 crore to 65 lakh farmers through a direct benefit transfer of Rs 10,000, per acre to every farmer under the Rythu Bandhu Scheme (RBS).

The government had appointed an assistant extension agriculture officer for each cluster comprising 5,000 acres. So far it completed construction of 2,601 rythu vedikas. "Telangana is the only State in the country registering crop being cultivated by every farmer."

That apart, the State has established a market research analysis wing to identify crops with national and international demand, and to encourage farmers to cultivate crops with higher market demand.

Reddy said the country's annual cooking oil demand is 23 lakh metric tonnes. But, only around 10-11 lakh metric tonnes of cooking oil production is available domestically.

Taking the demand into consideration, the State government decided to encourage oil palm cultivation in 20 lakh acres. As part of the exercise, the government set a target cultivation of oil palm in two lakh acres during 2022-23. To meet the same, Rs 1,000 crore has been allocated in the annual budget and oil palm has already been planted in thousands of acres.

He said unlike in any other State, the government provided 80-100 per cent subsidy to encourage drip irrigation. Also, it is providing Rs 11,000 subsidy per acre on oil palm and Rs 22,000 for drip irrigation per acre.

For four years, the government provided Rs 4,200 per year for plants and fertilizers and Rs 16,800 per acre for meeting other expenses per acre.

In all it is providing Rs 49,899 as subsidy per acre of oil palm, he added. Reddy asked farmers not to rely on reports of scrapping subsidies to oil palm cultivating farmers. "If any of farmer has raised a loan to cultivate oil palm, the subsidy would be deposited in his bank account. It is an option given to farmers," he said.