Staff Reporter
ROING, 16 Mar: Hyderabad (Telengana)-based company 3F Oil Palm set up an oil palm processing unit in Jia-III village in Lower Dibang Valley (LDV) district on Saturday.
Attending the inaugural ceremony for commencement of commercial production, former chief minister Mukut Mithi said that “the establishment of a processing unit will provide self-reliance in edible oil for the farmers of the district.”
He said that the facility set up by 3F Oil Palm would “provide an opportunity for the farmers to extract fresh fruits bunches,” and added that “the processing unit will provide a medium for the farmers to sell their products directly to the factory.”
Dambuk MLA Gum Tayeng said, “Apart from economic benefits, oil farming will generate job opportunities for the unemployed youths of the district,” and encouraged the farmers to “opt for oil cultivation.”
“Many youths of the district are inclining towards drugs; thus, oil farming and setting up of the factory will definitely provide a platform for the youths to engage themselves for their good health,” said Tayeng, and urged the company to “assist the farmers as per the memorandum of understanding and guidelines.”
Addressing the farmers, Agriculture Commissioner Bidol Tayeng termed oil farming “a source to bring regular income every fortnight for the farmers.”
“As oil farming has already been taken up in Lohit, Namsai, Changlang and Tirap districts, the eastern zone districts have the potential to produce a huge percentage of targetted areas for oil farming in the state,” Tayeng added.
On the charge regarding adverse impacts of oil palm cultivation, he said that “oil cultivation has no negative impact over the environment; rather it will convert the barren land into a green land.”
Earlier, 3F Oil Palm managing director Sanjay Goenka informed that “the project will have a palm oil processing and refinery, an effluent plant, a power plant-based on palm waste, and other support functions.”
“The mission of oil farming in the entire Northeastern region will boost domestic production by reducing dependence on import of crude oil from other countries,” he said.
Meanwhile, the farmers requested the company to implement the facilities meant for the farmers as per the guidelines, “in order to carry out exposure tours for the farmers to acquire more knowledge about oil farming.”
The farmers also appealed to the district administration to “approve land possession up to 200 hectares from 50 hectares for the convenience of the farmers.”
