Director Horticulture Bijaya Ketan Upadhyaya has said the State Government has decided to provide incentives to ensure sustainable livelihood to the farmers through oil palm cultivation.
The incentives will be provided for transportation of seedlings, Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFBs) up to the collection centers and for setting up processing units, said Dr Upadhyaya. Oil palm is one of the fastest growing agricultural crops as it is a highly productive.
Palm oil is not only cheap but also extremely versatile and used as biofuel, lubricant and cooking oil. It is also used as an additive in food and cosmetic industries.
The Director Horticulture informed that, as of now, an area of 10,162.46 hectares land is available under oil palm. He said that the Oil palm Reassessment Committee has identified 63,500 hectares as feasible for oil palm cultivation in eight districts of the State.
As per the suggestions of Department of Fruit Science and Horticulture Technology, OUAT, the Directorate of Horticulture has decided to focus on expansion of area in Rayagada, Bargarh, Nayagarh, Boudh, Ganjam, Baleswar, Bhadrak and Mayurbhanj districts in a cluster approach.
Farmers in Bargarh, Boudh, Nayagarh and Mayurbhanj districts are performing well as the State has recorded 10 times production of FFBs in the last one decade, said he.
The production of FFBs was 6,701.87 tonne in 2017-18 against 524.27 tonne in 2008-09. The FFBs procurement price is fixed monthly by the Directorate of Horticulture, Odisha as per the CACP recommendation and is communicated to the oil palm companies.
As approved, Rs10 per seedling will be provided to the farmers as transportation assistance and Rs 700 per MT will be given for transportation of FFBs to the collection centre.
The State has also been providing Rs 8,509 as subsidy per hectare for planting materials and 50 per cent subsidy on machinery for harvesting. Besides Rs 5,000 per hectare per annum is provided to the farmers for four years for maintenance and inter cropping.
The Centre has also approved subsidy amounting to Rs 2 crore for establishment of oil palm processing unit of 5MT/hr capacity by cooperative sectors/ Government-recognised farmers’ associations. While drip irrigation has been mandatory in the palm fields as it is a highly water intensive crop, suitable clusters with water source will be identified in a planned manner to make it successful, said Dr Upadhyaya.