In order to generate more income for the farmers of Tripura, the state government is planning to convert at least 7000 hector land into Palm oil cultivation under National Mission on Edible Oils - Oil Palm (NMEO-OP), said Agriculture Minister Ratan Lal Nath.

Addressing a press conference at the Civil Secretariat on Wednesday evening, Nath said that the government has given emphasis on increases for the state's farmer income and expansion plan for palm oil cultivation, as India is among few countries of the world , where palm oil production is progressing.

Considering the growing domestic demand for edible oils, the staggering deficiency and the cost to the exchequer on account of imports, the urgency of scaling up the oil palm area is of National interest and does not need any over emphasis.

Therefore, to fulfil the national interest, National Mission on Edible Oils - Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) is approved with the aim to enhance the edible oilseeds production and oils availability in the country by harnessing Oil Palm area expansion, increasing production and to reduce import burden on edible oils. It will focus on increasing edible oil production from Oil Palm.

Nath said that  only five countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand and Cambodia  are producing about 90 percent of the palm oil required across the globe. He said that India imported 133.52 lakh metric tons of edible oil worth Rs. 80,000 crore and only palm oil is 56 %, which means 75 lakh metric tons of palm oil imported.

The Northeast region including Tripura’s climate is suitable for palm oil farming  and at present , the NE region has 38,992 hectors of palm oil trees.

Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala are major Oil palm growing states and account 98% of total production. Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Gujarat and Mizoram have also sizable areas under Oil palm cultivation. Recently Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Nagaland have also initiated Oil palm plantation programmes on a large scale.

The reassessment committee of ICAR- Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research (IIOPR) 2020 has assessed in the year 2020, a total area of around 28 lakh hectares. Out of the total 27.99 lakh ha potential area an area of 18.37 lakh is in the general state and 9.62 lakh in 7 NE States. Presently in the North East the coverage is around 38,992 hectares against the potential of 9.62 lakh hectares assessed by the IIOPR and hence there is a lot of potential for the growth of oil palm in the country especially in the north eastern states.  The ICAR has also identified 1,46,368 hectares of land in Tripura for palm oil cultivation.

He added that for implementation of National Mission on Edible Oils - Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) in Tripura, two agri-producing organizations including Godrej Agrovet limited and Pathonjali food private limited signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with tripura government for palm oil cultivation and these companies have already started nursery for palm oil.

The department has also trained 18 officers for palm oil production and a total of 2123 farmers of the state have also trained for palm oil cultivation, said Nath.