Palm Oil company in Siddipet soon: Harish Rao

To facilitate the buyback of crop from farmers directly in district

Siddipet: Finance Minister T Harish Rao on Sunday assured to set up an Oil Palm company at Narmetta in Siddipet district to facilitate the buyback of Oil Palm crop from farmers directly in Siddipet.

Addressing the aspiring Oil Palm farmers, who arrived from different parts of Siddipet district for an interactive session here in district headquarters on Sunday, the Minister said that the district was permitted to take up Oil Palm cultivation in over 50,000 acres from the coming Vanakalam crop season.

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Agriculture Minister S Niranjan Reddy said Telangana, which is standing at second in oil palm cultivation in India, will get permission to cultivate the crop in an additional 10 lakh acres, if Telangana completes the current target of 8 lakhs in the next four years. Saying that India needs 21 million tonnes of cooking oils every year, he said that they were producing just 7 million tonnes of cooking oil annually and the remaining cooking oils were being imported at a whopping expenditure of Rs 75,000 crores. He said the State government will provide Rs 30,000 subsidy per acre for oil palm cultivation in addition to a loan from NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development) for aspiring farmers.

“Once cultivated, the farmer can get income for 30 years. He can also get additional income by taking up internal crops,” the Minister said.

Stating that the oil palm crop will come up for harvesting after four years, Reddy said the farmers can earn about Rs one lakh every year thereafter. He suggested the local officials to take at least 1,500 farmers for a visit to the oil palm farms in Bhadradri Kothagudem district where the farmers were cultivating the crop in about 50,000 acres.

On the occasion, the Ministers facilitated interaction between the farmers from Siddipet district and seasoned Oil Palm farmers from Bhadradri Kothagudem who have been cultivating the crop for the past few years. Farmers from Kothagudem, Alapati Prasad, Mangi Reddy Purnachandar Reddy, Purnachandar Rao and others shared their views. When the aspiring farmers from Siddipet raised several doubts, the farmers allayed their fears besides sensitising them on various aspects of the cultivation.

Medak MP Kotha Prabhakar Reddy, Zilla Parishad Chairperson Roja Sharma, MLCs Ragotham Reddy, Farooq Hussian, MLAs Rasamayi Balakishan, Vodithela Sathish Kumar, Forest Development Corporation Chairman Vanteru Prathap Reddy, Oil Fed Chairman Kancherla Ramakrishna Reddy and Rythu Bandhu Samithi Chairman Vanga Reddy and others were present.

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