Agartala, Nov 29, 2023, TRIPURA TIMES Desk

Agartala, Nov 29: Minister for Agriculture Ratanlal Nath on Wednesday said a plan is in the pipeline to bring 7000 hectares of land under palm cultivation under the National Mission on Edible Oils- Oil Palm Project by 2026-27.
Addressing a press conference at the secretariat, the Agriculture minister said, the state government has been laying special importance on palm oil cultivation with the goal of increasing the farmers’ income.
He said, the climate and soil in Tripura and other North-eastern States are favourable for palm cultivation. In the North East, palm cultivation is being done on 38,992 hectares of land at present.
The Agriculture minister said, the ICAR-IIOPR evaluation committee had identified 1,46,364 hectares of land for expansion of palm cultivation through digital mapping in 2020.
He said, the Agriculture department signed MoUs with two organizations- Godrej Agrovet Limited and Patanjali Food Limited for implementation of the National Mission on Edible Oils- Oil Palm Project. The Godrej Agrovet Limited already developed a nursery on 6.5 hectares of land at Nalkata of Dhalai district where over 1,50,000 palm oil saplings have been grown.
Besides, the Godrej Agrovet Limited planted palm oil saplings on 51.02 hectares of land and the Patanjali Foods Private Limited planted palm oil saplings on 4.31 hectares of land this year.
Nath also mentioned that 18 Agriculture officers of the state were recently sent to Andhra Pradesh for training on palm oil. Besides, 2,123 farmers of the state were already imparted training on palm oil cultivation. Among them, 1076 trained farmers already expressed their interests in palm oil cultivation.
The Agriculture minister also held a detailed discussion on the scheme, facilities for farmers and income opportunities.
Director of Horticulture Phanibhusan Jamatia, who also attended the press conference, said a process is underway to develop a mobile application for the convenience of the farmers. This app would enable the interested farmers to register their names.