The State Government has set a target to undertake oil palm cultivation on 30,000 hectares of land by the end of the 12th Five Year Plan. Oil palm cultivation is now undertaken on 12,358 hectares of land while 5,000 hectares of land will be cultivated in the current year (2013-14).
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, while presiding over a meeting on oil palm cultivation on Thursday at the Secretariat, laid emphasis on cluster-based oil palm cultivation in river basins and in the areas where bore-wells are available. It was also decided to increase the area under oil palm cultivation because of its growing demand in the State. The meeting revealed that a farmer gets profit of Rs 3 lakh from one hectare of oil palm cultivation.
There are five palm oil processing units functioning in 14 districts in the State which have signed agreements with the Government to purchase palm and provide exact charge of it. It was decided to encourage more such units. Agriculture Minister Debi Prasad Mishra and Chief Secretary Jugal Kishore Mohapatra along with senior officials were present.