Godrej Agrovet Organizes Oil Palm Plantation Drive in Chintampalli

CHINTAMPALLI:
The Government of India launched a ‘Mega Oil Palm Plantation Drive’ under the National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) across the country. The objective was to further encourage and increase oil palm cultivation in sync with the objective of making our country self-reliant in the production of edible oils.

To support the cause, Godrej Agrovet Ltd. (GAVL), a diversified agri-business company, today organized an oil palm plantation drive in Chintampalli, Andhra Pradesh. Witnessing participation from 200 farmers each from the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the event was also graced by Dr. PK Singh, Agriculture Commissioner, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India; Kothagiri Sridhar, Member of Parliament, Eluru, Andhra Pradesh; Dr. K. Suresh, Director, ICAR- Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research (IIOPR) and Sougata Niyogi, CEO-Oil Palm Business, GAVL. India is the world’s largest importer and the 2 nd largest consumer of Palm Oil. With the local production of 300,000 tons, the country currently imports 7,500,000 tons.

Commenting on the nation-wide Mega Oil Palm Plantation Drive, Dr. PK Singh, Agriculture Commissioner, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India said ,”The plantation drive which coincided with the rainy season has received encouraging response from the
oil palm processing companies and farmers. Covering approximately 3500 ha. of the area and planting more than 5.00 lakh planting material during the drive, this will further assist us in achieving the target of bringing an additional area of 6.5 lakh ha. under oil palm production by 2025-26. Collaborating with players like Godrej, we are confident of enhancing productivity and creating sustainable income sources for the oil palm farmers.”

Kothagiri Sridhar, Member of Parliament, Eluru, Andhra Pradesh emphasized the importance of import duty for better price realisation of oil palm farmers which in turn would aid increase the oil palm area under cultivation.

Sougata Niyogi, CEO-Oil Palm Business, GAVL, expressed his enthusiasm on the plantation drive stating, “At GAVL, we are committed to promoting sustainable and responsible oil palm cultivation. This drive is a significant step towards achieving self-reliance in edible oil production and uplifting the farming community. Having distributed more than 2.5 Lacs saplings of oil palm across 20 districts in 10 states, we will continue to provide a number of resources to oil palm farmers in addition to training them on sustainable oil palm plantation practices by leveraging more than 30 years of our experience. We are confident that through Samadhan – our one-stop solution center for oil palm farmers, we will not only uplift the Indian oil palm farmers with small land parcels but also generate employment in their region.”

Highlighting the impact of oil palm cultivation on the local ecosystem and the environment, Dr. K. Suresh, Director, ICAR-IIOPR said, “As a highest vegetable oil yielding crop, oil palm cultivation enables farmers to have an additional source of income through intercropping and could generate more employment opportunities in their area of development. The crop sequesters more carbon than any other plantation crop and doesn’t impact the environment too. I am delighted to see the collaborative efforts among the oil palm stakeholders like this plantation drive wherein we all are focused on a common objective of reducing the dependency on imports for edible oils in achieving ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT in vegetable oil production and driving the economic growth of India.”

Recently, GAVL inaugurated an edible oil refinery at Chintalapudi, Eluru district, its first downstream project for value-added products. The same was followed by allocation of potential area of 47,000 Acre in Sangareddy District of Telangana to expand cultivation of Oil Palm and set up Oil Palm processing units.