Bhupalpally sets target for oil palm cultivation
Bhupalpally/Warangal: The officials of the Horticulture are encouraging the farmers to cultivate the oil palm in 7,450 acres for the year 2022-23 in the district. To achieve this target, District Collector Bhavesh Mishra convened a meeting with the officials of the Horticulture, Suven Agro and MI Agro companies a couple of days ago and chalked out plans.
Following this, the Agriculture Extension Officers (AEOs) are planning to conduct awareness programmes for the farmers about the need of cultivation of the oil palm which is in good demand not only in the State, but also in other parts of the country and world.
The State government wanted to promote oil palm in 20 lakh acres in 26 districts including Jayashankar Bhupalpally in the State as the State stands sixth in terms of oil palm area in the country with the plantation crop covered in 53,455 acres so far. But it stands first in terms of productivity at eight tonnes of fresh fruit bunches of oil palm per acre and also highest oil extraction rate of 19.22% in 2020-21.
“The production of crude palm oil in the State is about 0.45 lakh tonnes against the requirement of 3.66 lakh tonnes,” as per the socio economic outlook. “Keeping this in view, we are encouraging the farmers to cultivate the oil palm on a large scale. The government is also offering subsidies. We are planning to achieve 1,000 acres of plantation every month by dividing the district into 45 clusters,” Collector Mishra said.
On the other hand, the staff of the Micro Irrigation scheme also explain to the farmers about the need of drip irrigation and the subsidy being provided by the government. The officials have decided to conduct an online (zoom) meeting every Saturday to assess the progress of the oil palm cultivation. Paddy, Chilli and Cotton are the major crops in the district. With the government’s decision to provide a subsidy of Rs 26,000 per acre to oil palm farmers in the first year, Rs 5000 per acres each in second and third years as a crop investment incentive, the farmers are likely to cultivate the oil palm, said Horticulture Officer Akbar.
Meanwhile, Horticulture official sources said that they were taking steps to see that oil palm would be cultivated 40,000 acres in Warangal district, and 20,000 acres in Hanamkonda district. Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao said that the State government was planning to establish an oil palm processing unit in Thorrur of the Mahabubabad district of erstwhile Warangal district.
