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DONGKAMUKAM: On Friday, an oil palm tree plantation drive, which involved awareness and distribution to potential farmers, organized by the Department of Agriculture, Hamren, West Karbi Anglong, Assam, in collaboration with Godrej Agrovet Ltd Silchar, was held at Rongjangmi, one of the remote villages near Kuthepi, West Karbi Anglong.
The meet was attended by District Agriculture Officer (DAO) Gunjon Dutta, State Nodal Head of Godrej Agrovet Ltd Anand Pandey, District Nodal officer Mirjeng Terang, ADO Dongkamukam Circle Tapan Dutta, District In-Charge of West Karbi Anglong and Sribhumi (Karimganj) Shyam Shekhar Singha, and a good number of farmers.
In the programme, District Agriculture Officer Gunjan Dutta informed the farmers that they would reap the harvest after four years of planting oil palm trees amounting to Rs 40,000 to Rs 70,000 per bigha.
“East Karbi Anglong has already started planting, sponsored by Patanjali but in West Karbi Anglong, we began today with 50 saplings sponsored by Godrej Agrovet Ltd and will execute the plantation to 500 hectares in the district this year,” he added.
He further stated that Goalpara was the first district in Assam to have executed the plantation successfully, but that the twin districts were delayed by three years due to some technical problems.
He also assured of taking a delegation team to Mizoram to study how the plantations were done practically. He informed that while planting, distance had to be maintained between the trees and that intercropping could be done with lemon, ginger, turmeric, etc., which would generate extra income.
Interested farmers would get Rs 3,000 per hectare for clearing the plot, Rs 6250 for intercropping per hectare, Rs 4000 for biofencing per hectare, Rs 15,000 for vermicompost per unit, and another Rs 10,000 for cattle farming, the officer assured.
He requested the farmers to get the educated unemployed youths involved instead of sending them out of state, as there was good income here.
Also Read: Assam Launches Mega Oil-Palm Plantation to Boost Edible Oil Production
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