[ Prafulla Kaman ]
PASIGHAT, 20 Jul: The oil palm growers in East Siang district have started earning by selling fresh fruit bunches (FFB) produced in their plantations.
The farmers have been selling the palm fruits to Patanjali Oil Factory in Andhra Pradesh since last two years as almost all the palm trees in their gardens started producing fruits.
The oil palm cultivation project in the district was introduced in April, 2016, after a memorandum of understanding was signed between the state government and Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd. (presently known as Patanjali Food Ltd.) to promote oil palm cultivation in the district.
Initially, oil palms were planted in 230 hectares on barren lands in Pasighat, Mebo, Sille-Oyan, Ruksin and Bilat.
The agriculture department, which is the nodal agency of the project, has set a target of plantations in 40,000 hectares, and encouraged the local horticulturists to adopt oil palm cultivation for economic gain. Currently, there are 11,000 hectares of palm plantations in the potential Zone-III areas in the district.
The Patanjali Food Ltd. has also developed oil palm nurseries at Pasighat Six Mile and Industrial Growth Centre (IGC) at Niglok.
According to East Siang district agriculture officer Opang Moyong, “abundant growth of the palm plants is showing an economic prospect for the local horticulturists.”
“Moreover, rapid oil palm area expansion in the region is indicating that there would be a rich contribution towards the country’s edible oil production,” Moyong opined.
Meanwhile, the agriculture department has identified approximately 1.26 lakh hectares in East Siang, Lower Siang, Kamle, Papumpare, Pakke Kessang, Lower Dibang Valley, Namsai, Tirap and Changlang for oil palm cultivation.
The Patanjali Foods Ltd. is setting up an oil palm factory in the Industrial Growth Centre at Niglok (Ruksin) for extraction of edible oil from fruits bunches. The construction works with installation of power houses and manufacturing units are nearing completion.
Besides, Patanjali Food Ltd, two other Indian companies, Shivasais Oil Palm Pvt Ltd of Andhra Pradesh and Oil Palm Agrotech Pvt Ltd of Hyderabad have also been entrusted to promote palm oil growth in the state.
The palm oil project aims at self-sufficiency in the field of edible oil and save annual foreign exchange of Rs. 60,000 crore to Rs. 70,000 crore that the country spends in procuring edible oil from Malaysia and Indonesia.
