Oil palm expansion: Agriculture Minister moots action on firms with poor progress

The Agriculture Minister said that the government had executed agreements with 14 companies for oil palm area expansion

Hyderabad: Taking serious note of the tardy progress in the implementation of plans intended for expansion of oil palm cultivation in the State, Agriculture Minister Thummala Nageshwar Rao pointed out that even 20 percent of the plantation target was not achieved so far. Reviewing the programme implementation with officials in his Secretariat chambers, the Minister said that the government had executed agreements with 14 companies for oil palm area expansion.

But the programme remained almost a non-starter in respect of some of the companies. He directed the Secretary for Agriculture, M Raghunandan Rao to review the agreements reached with such firms and initiate action if they failed to achieve the desired results. The plantation activity was completed in 1,52,957 acres so far. He wanted the officials to ensure that the construction of the processing plants and site acquisition were completed without delay.

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New Agriculture colleges

The Minister wanted proposals to be made for setting up new agriculture colleges at Rudrur in Nizamabad district and Kampasagar in Nalgonda district. He insisted that there should be at least one agriculture college in each of the 10 erstwhile districts. The State has as many as 10 colleges offering agriculture courses.

Referring to the agreements reached for investments support in farm sector at Davos, he said a Malaysian company in partnership with the Godrej will set up an oil palm seed garden at Gubbagurthi village of Konijerla mandal of Khammam district. The land acquisition process will be initiated soon. He wanted the seed garden to be developed without any delay.