Mahabubabad: Delay in construction of oil palm factory creating unrest among farmers

The oil palm factory at Gopalgiri village was supposed to be completed in two years, but since the government is not showing much interest in taking up the project, farmers are getting unrest and majority of them are reportedly planning to cut down the area of cultivation or completely stop

Mahabubabad: Oil palm farmers of the Thorrur mandal of the district are getting restless as the State government has not yet initiated the process of construction of an oil palm factory at Gopalgiri village of the mandal.

Last October, the then Panchayati Raj Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao laid the foundation stone for an oil palm factory in Gopalgiri village of Palakurthi assembly Constituency, but after that no initiative has been taken by the government to start the construction of the factory.

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Telangana State Cooperative Oilseeds Growers Federation (TG-Oilfed) was supposed to construct the factory on 82 acres. Though the farmers have been exerting pressure on the district administration to take up the construction of the oil palm factory, there is no response from them, creating confusion and anxiety among the farmers.

The proposed factory, which is estimated to cost Rs. 175 crore, will have a capacity to process 30 to 60 tonnes of oil per day. The establishment of this factory will create employment opportunities for around 300 people. In addition to expanding the area of palm oil cultivation, the factory will also be accessible to the farmers.

The farmers fear that if the oil palm fruit processing unit was not established in the mandal soon, the oil palm cultivation in the district would be affected as many of them may stop cultivating it.

“The oil palm fruit is highly perishable and has to be processed within 48 hours of harvesting, or it begins to deteriorate, with harmful fatty acids building up, hence there is a need to set up a processing unit in the mandal so that the oil palm fruits can be processed at the earliest,”a farmer said.

Currently, Mahabubabad district cultivates oil palm on 6,535 acres of land and it is planning to add another 400 acres in the current financial year.

While the crops were harvested in Thorrur, Kuravi and Maripeda mandals, they were moved to the oil industry in Aswaraopet of Khammam district. Since there is no oil palm industry in the district, farmers are not showing much interest in taking up oil palm cultivation.

The oil palm factory at Gopalgiri village was supposed to be completed in two years, but since the government is not showing much interest in taking up the project, farmers are getting unrest and majority of them are reportedly planning to cut down the area of cultivation or completely stop.

Palm oil is a widespread component of products in the Indian market – from daily use products like soaps and toothpastes to edible products like biscuits, cooking oil, chocolates and more. Globally though, the use of palm oil is controversial as the supply chain is usually riddled with environmental issues.

India consumes more than nine million metric tonnes of palm oil annually and its edible oil import bills are in trillions of rupees. India is the world’s largest importer of palm oil. It needs to import this oil to meet the gap of 61.80 percent between the total domestic demand and the local production.