Telangana aims to increase oil palm Basmati area to 20 lakh acres

05-Jul-2024 12:40 PM

Khammam. In the South Indian state of Telangana, a target has been set to increase the oil palm production area to 20 lakh acres in the next few years, which is being considered a very high or ambitious target. Although the weather, soil and climate in the state are quite favorable for palm cultivation,

but to achieve this huge target, it is necessary to give huge incentives to the producers. One special reason for this is that after planting a palm plant,

farmers do not get any income for three to four years, whereas they have to spend money on it regularly. It bears fruit only after four years.

In Telangana, within the last few years, the oil palm plantation area has increased from 50 thousand acres to 2 lakh acres. The previous government had made a good effort to increase its area and now the same is expected from the current government.

The National Mission on Edible Oils-Oil Palm has played an important role in promoting the production of oil palm in the state. The Telangana government had given permission to 14 companies to set up palm nurseries and provide saplings to farmers. This helped many farmers in setting up new palm plantations.

Khammam district of Telangana is famous for palm production. An average of 3 lakh tonnes of FFB (fresh fruit bunches) are produced there every year. Now the plants have started growing in the new plantations, due to which the production of palm is expected to increase almost twofold in the next two years. But this time the price of palm has fallen considerably.