Oil palm mission: Mega plantation drive involving eleven states concludes

The 'Mega Oil Palm Plantation Drive', which commenced on July 25, where State governments along with oil palm processing companies participated, concluded on Saturday. The plantation drive was aimed to promote and increase oil palm cultivation.  The government believes this will further assist in achieving the target of bringing an additional area of 6.5 lakh hectares under oil palm production by 2025-26.

The major oil palm growing states where the plantation drive was organized are Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Goa, Karnataka, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Tripura. The oil palm processing companies such as Patanjali Food Pvt. Ltd., Godrej Agrovet, 3F, KE Cultivation, and NavBharat also participated in the drive.

“The Mega Oil Palm Plantation drive concluded on 12th August 2023. Through this drive, the states and the companies were able to reach out to more than 7000 farmers in 77 villages of 49 districts in 11 states, covering approximately 3500 ha. of the area and planting more than 5.00 lakh planting material,” Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare said in a statement.

As part of the mega plantation drive, the companies also organized unique and intensive large-scale technical training seminars on oil palm cultivation for farmers along with the department staff. The aim of the seminars conducted was to make the farmers and the staff more aware of the management packages which will help to ensure the plants' health, thereby enhancing productivity and creating sustainable income sources.

The central government launched National Mission for Edible Oils- Oil Palm in August 2021. India is the world's second-largest consumer and number one vegetable oil importer, and it meets about 60 per cent of its needs through imports, and in the process spends billions of dollars.

A large part of it is palm oil and its derivatives, which are imported from Indonesia and Malaysia. India majorly consumes mustard, palm, soybean, and sunflower-derived edible oils.