Oil palm cultivation in Telangana State set for big boost

Hyderabad: State Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy has thanked the Centre for giving its nod for the cultivation of oil palm in Telangana.

Addressing media here on Saturday, he said, so far no one ever focused on encouraging the cultivation of oil palm in the State.

But, it was the vision of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao that the State government has decided to focus on expanding the cultivation of oil palm in the State.

The Minister stated that the Central teams have visited the State twice and following the request of the State, it has given clearance to cultivate oil palm in an extent of 45,000 acres.

He said, unlike other crops, the oil palm will not have disadvantages due to the natural calamities and there will be a guaranteed buy-back of the yields. "Farmers will have an income of about Rs 1.5 lakh per acre by cultivating oil palm," he added.

Niranjana Reddy said that the country has been importing palm oil spending Rs 75,000 crore from other countries to meet its requirements of 21 million tonnes of cooking oil.

Further, it is for the first time that the Centre has accorded permission to the State to cultivate oil palm in such a large extent. "So far, the oil palm is being grown only in Khammam, Nalgonda and Kothagudem in an extent of 50,000 acres and the government is extending the subsidy.

Following the Central government's nod efforts will be made to prepare plans to encourage oil palm cultivation across the State, he added.