Oil palm cultivation ATM for farmers: Tayeng
ITANAGAR, Dec 20: Despite challenges in importing sprouts from other countries and growing them in local and secondary nurseries, agriculture commissioner Bidol Tayeng encouraged farmers to opt for oil palm cultivation.
He was addressing agriculture officers of five eastern districts during two-day training on oil palm cultivation and its economic benefits, which concluded at Lower Dibang Valley district HQs Roing on Wednesday.
Informing that oil palm cultivation has been taken up in Lohit, Namsai, Changlang, Tirap and Longding districts and proposed in Lower Dibang Valley, East Siang, Lower Siang and Papumpare districts, he said that eastern zone districts constitute about 71% of potential and the targeted areas in the state for cultivation, while East Siang, Lower Dibang Valley and Papum Pare have taken lead though other proposed district are yet to start.
On policy, programmes, directives and targets for cultivation, he clarified not to head to criticism and rumours on adverse impacts of the cultivation.
“I call oil palm cultivation as ATM for farmers as fruits of oil palm bring regular income every fortnight,” he told the participants including agriculture director K Riram, joint director T D Nechom and ADO (oil palm) Idar Nyori and other officials.
GoI’s OPAE includes Arunachal
AONS adds: It may be recalled that this hilly state was included under Oil Palm Area Expansion (OPAE), a sub scheme of RKVY, for oil palm cultivation during 2013-14 and National Mission on Oilseed and Oil Palm (NMOOP) from 2014-15 to 2017-18.
The state is also included under National Food Security Mission-Oil Palm (NFSM-OP) and implemented from 2018-19. State Department of Agriculture is a nodal agency for implementing the programme in the state. The Centre has proposed oil palm area expansion targets of 40000 ha for next five years from 2021-22 to 2025-26 under National Mission on Edible Oil-Oil Palm (NMEOOP). However, the GoI had approved annual action plan (AAP) for the state an amount of Rs. 1868.83 lakhs (Rs. 1685.40 lakh as central share and Rs. 183.44 lakh as state share) for coverage an area of 600 ha under oil palm cultivation during 2021-22 year under NMEOOP.
Source Link :- https://arunachalobserver.org/2023/12/21/oil-palm-cultivation-atm-for-farmers-tayeng/
