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Godrej Agrovet organises oil palm plantation drive in Chintampalli
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Monday, 21 August, 2023, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, Bengaluru
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Godrej Agrovet Ltd., a diversified agri-business company organised an oil palm plantation drive in Chintampalli, Andhra Pradesh. This follows after the Union Government Mega Oil Palm Plantation Drive’ under the National Mission on Edible Oils - Oil Palm (NMEO-OP). The objective was to further encourage and increase oil palm cultivation in sync with the objective of making our country self-reliant in the production of edible oils.
Witnessing participation from 200 farmers each from the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the event saw participation of Dr PK Singh, agriculture commissioner, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India; Kothagiri Sridhar, member of parliament, Eluru, Andhra Pradesh; Dr K. Suresh, director, ICAR- Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research (IIOPR) and Sougata Niyogi, CEO-Oil Palm Business, GAVL.
India is the world’s largest importer and the 2nd largest consumer of Palm Oil. With the local production of 300,000 tons, the country currently imports 7,500,000 tons.
Dr Singh said, ”The plantation drive which coincided with the rainy season has received encouraging response from the oil palm processing companies and farmers. Covering approximately 3500 ha, of the area and planting more than 5 lakh planting material during the drive, this will further assist us in achieving the target of bringing an additional area of 6.5 lakh ha, under oil palm production by 2025-26. Collaborating with players like Godrej, we are confident of enhancing productivity and creating sustainable income sources for the oil palm farmers.”
Sridhar emphasised the importance of import duty for better price realisation of oil palm farmers which in turn would aid increase the oil palm area under cultivation.
Niyogi said, “Having distributed more than 2.5 lakh saplings of oil palm across 20 districts in 10 states, we will continue to provide a number of resources to oil palm farmers in addition to training them on sustainable oil palm plantation practices by leveraging more than 30 years of our experience. We are confident that through Samadhan – our one-stop solution center for oil palm farmers, we will not only uplift the Indian oil palm farmers with small land parcels but also generate employment in their region.”
Dr Suresh said, “As a highest vegetable oil yielding crop, oil palm cultivation enables farmers to have an additional source of income through intercropping and could generate more employment opportunities in their area of development. The crop sequesters more carbon than any other plantation crop and doesn’t impact the environment too.”
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