Extend loans to promote oil palm cultivation: Agri Minister to bankers
The Minister held a high-level meeting with the State level bankers meeting at Horticultural Training Centre here on Monday, and discussed with them about the State government's plans to promote the oil palm cultivation in the State on a large scale.
Hyderabad: Considering the massive cultivation of oil palm crop being taken up in the State, Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy asked the bankers to provide extensive financial assistance to farmers. He stated that oil palm cultivation will be taken up in about 8.14 lakh acres in the State over the next four years as per the permissions accorded by the Centre, promising a good return on investment for farmers.
The Minister held a high-level meeting with the State level bankers meeting at Horticultural Training Centre here on Monday, and discussed with them about the State government’s plans to promote the oil palm cultivation in the State on a large scale. He sought their cooperation by lending necessary farm loans and formulate guidelines for sanction of these loans based on the NABARD Scale of Finance to encourage farmers take up the oil palm cultivation in huge numbers. He directed the officials to constitute a special committee to determine the unit price for oil palm cultivation for the benefit of farmers.
Speaking on the occasion, Niranjan Reddy said India requires 22 million tonnes of cooking oil where only seven million tonnes is being produced domestically and the remaining is being imported from other countries. As a result, the country was losing lot of foreign exchange. He emphasised the need to promote oil palm cultivation in the country to reduce importing oil palm. At present, the oil palm is being cultivated in about 8.25 lakh acres producing only 2.81 lakh tonnes of raw palm oil.
“Telangana alone requires about 3.66 lakh tonnes of oil palms for its consumption, but only 38,000 tonnes are being produced in the State. To fill this gap, we should cultivate oil palm in about 2.5 lakh acres,” the Minister added. He said about Rs 1,38,680 is required for cultivation of oil palm per acre for four years where the government will provide subsidy of Rs 31,832 per acre.
Considering the increased irrigation facility in the State, the Centre accorded permission to take up oil palm cultivation in 8.14 lakh acres across 25 districts in the State. The orders have been already issued during last month allocating factory zones to different companies which are expected to pay necessary deposits to sign the crop procurement agreements with farmers.
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