Tripura government has taken an initiative to popularise cultivation of red oil palm in the state and which aims toward increasing the income of farmers, reduce the import of oil palm and make India self sufficient in its production said Apurba Roy, secretary of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare department, Tripura.
He said this in the sideline of a press conference in the secretariat on Wednesday evening.
The Secretary said that under the National Mission on Edible Oil – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP), Tripura is also going to start cultivation of oil palm in 530 hectare area in the state and to encourage farmers in its cultivation the government is going to provide financial assistance of Rs one lakh per hectare beside providing imported disease free quality planting materials and buyback guarantee for the harvested crop as value addition units shall also be setup here thus providing employment scope for the people of the state.
The Secretary added compared to rubber the profit in oil palm is almost double, moreover, it starts giving income from forth year onward and during the initial years Cocoa can also be intercropped along with it.
He said that the Tripura government’s Agriculture and Farmers Welfare department has selected two company – Godrej Agrovet Ltd and Pataniali Foods Ltd for implementation of NMEO-OP as associate partner and which have assured regarding buying back the produced palm from the farmers beside setting up units for value addition of the extracted palm oil and its marketing.
Meantime, government of India has identified 7000 hectare area as potential area for oil palm in the state for new area expansion and out of four nurseries, two has already been set up in Jumerdhepa and Nalkata.
