Siddipet among top oil palm cultivating districts in Telangana

Telangana government was giving up to 100 per cent subsidy to farmers with up to 12.5 acres, a large number of farmers were coming forward to cultivate oil palm

Siddipet: Siddipet is at the top among districts that were selected to go for oil palm cultivation in Telangana.

Districts excluding Sangareddy, Vikarabad, Rangareddy and Medchal districts were permitted to take up oil palm cultivation in the year 2020. Siddipet stands first among these, with farmers in the district having planted oil palms on 5,100 acres. Over 1,350 farmers had already paid demand drafts for drip irrigation facilities and plants, which will take the total area to 6,429 acres. The farmers cultivated oil palm on nearly 3,000 acres this year alone.

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As India was dependent on imports of palm oil from other countries, Finance Minister T Harish Rao was holding regular review meetings with officials and farmers to encourage the farmers to take up oil palm for making more profits in agriculture. While Collector Prasanth Jeevan Patil was also conducting regular meetings with officials and farmers, the Deputy Director of the Horticulture Department K Ramalakshmi is also available for farmers to reach out.

Since the government was giving up to 100 per cent subsidy to farmers with up to 12.5 acres, a large number of farmers were coming forward to cultivate oil palm. The State government had granted Rs.1,000 crore in this year’s budget for oil palm. Speaking to Telangana Today, Ramalakshmi said there were three nurseries in the districts where the sprouts were brought from Malaysia and Indonesia to meet the demand. The three nurseries were located at Ranganayaka Sagar, Mulugu and Yellaigude in Jagadevpur Mandal. Combinedly, the three nurseries have saplings sufficient for 6,000 acres now. Meanwhile, the officials were also educating the farmers to take up internal crops in oil palm.

Since oil palm would start giving harvest after four years, the Deputy Director said it would be better for farmers to take up internal crop cultivation to earn profits. Once the oil palm starts giving the harvest, Ramalakshmi said the farmers could earn up to Rs.1 lakh profit per year on each acre. To make the marketing of oil palm crops easy, Harish Rao has launched the construction of an Oil Palm factory at Narmetta village in Siddipet. The factory is being built on a sprawling 60 acres of land by spending over Rs 300 crore. By the time farmers in Siddipet district start getting the harvest, the factory would be ready for buying and processing, the Minister said.