Agriculture Minister Tage Taki pleads Centre to prioritize oil palm cultivation in Arunachal

OUR CORRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh Agriculture Minister Tage Taki on Tuesday urged the DoNER ministry to take up with the Centre for cultivation of oil palm in the State on priority.

Attending the national workshop on oil palm, being organized by the State agriculture department, the minister, while pointing out that roughly 11,30,000 hectares of land can be used for oil palm cultivation immediately at the foot hills of the State, added that the State is not capable on its own due to numerous problems so the Centre should help in the sector.

Saddened by the fact that 8000 crore of palm oil is being imported to the country every year, despite having the required agro-climate condition, Taki observed that it might be because of lack of planning and processing or lack of knowledge.

"To make the nation powerful, economic growth should be the top most priority which can be only possible if the country is self reliance in edible items," he said.

Highlighting the problems being faced by the palm oil cultivators in the State, Taki advocated for fencing facility and motorable roads to the cultivation areas as the major requirements which, he said, need to be sanctioned immediately. The minister also urged all the participants to clear their myth about the oil plam cultivation and impart maximum knowledge from the workshop and not to believe in rumours on ill effect of oil palm.

Advisor to the agriculture minister, Gabriel D Wansu in his deliberation said that in spite of the State making small progress in palm oil cultivation, there are still concerns and fears in the minds of farmers which, he believed, the workshop would overcome. Urging the resource persons to ensure that the essence of the farmers does not run out, Wangsu said that they need to be protected at any cause.

Though the State has suitable agro climate condition for oil palm cultivation, he advised the farmers to keep in mind the Pakke declaration and climate conditions for global conditions for oil palm farming.

Earlier, Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar in his inaugural speech informed that the nation is the largest consumer of edible oil and spends over 80 crore every year, so the need of the hour is to increase its own oil production so that the country become more reliable and could export to other countries. Kumar also informed that the Centre has planned to provide all supports for oil palm cultivation including developing land, setting up nurseries, providing fertilizers.

"It is our collective responsibility to look after the ecosystem for which land mapping is the first requirement which will be look after Northeast Space Application Centre at Shillong to expedite the usage of remote sensing technology to discover natural minerals uncovered in the North-Eastern states of India and to promote overall growth of the region. They can develop areas which can be use for oil plam cultivation," Kumar said.

Informing that Arunachal is blessed with good quality soil and climate for agro plants, the Chief Secretary urged the resource persons to impart knowledge to the farmers about climatic conditions, suitable soil, good quality saplings, manure, inter cropping etc for oil palm cultivation.

State agriculture secretary Bidol Tayeng also spoke on the occasion. The programme was attended by various States, Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) representatives, central universities and processing centres among others.

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