Assam: Centre Paves Way for Oil Palm Cultivation in Tea Estates

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: The Union Ministry of Agriculture has paved the way for tea garden owners to venture into oil palm cultivation in their gardens.

The existing ground reality is such that the Assam government has already allowed tea garden owners to utilise five per cent of total lands under their occupation for the plantation of other cash crops.

According to official records, big tea gardens in the state have 2.35 lakh hectares of the 3.35 lakh hectares of land under tea plantation in the state. Small tea growers in the state have around one lakh hectares of land for the cultivation of tea.

The doyens of the tea industry feel that integrating oil palm cultivation with tea estates could significantly enhance the financial sustainability of the tea industry, which is currently facing economic challenges. Studies indicate that tea and oil palm can be cultivated in harmony without disruption to each other. 

Over the years, tea garden owners were hesitating to venture into oil palm cultivation that requires substantial capital investment. On its part, the Assam government did not declare oil palm as a cash crop. With the Assam cabinet on January 10, 2025, declaring oil palm as a cash crop, the tea garden owners in the state literally took a big stride towards their dream of oil palm cultivation.

Organisations associated with tea gardens moved the Union Ministry of Agriculture in February this year and requested to accelerate oil palm cultivation in Assam and to help achieve the target set under NMEO-OP (National Mission on Edible Oil- Oil Palm). "We earnestly request that all financial assistance and support available under the mission for oil palm growers in the Northeast be extended to large tea estates and enterprises in the region."

In response to this, on April 1, the Union Ministry of Agriculture wrote to the Assam Agriculture Department, "Since the support under NMEO-OP is per hectare of cultivation of oil palm, in case of utilising up to 5 per cent tea estate land, the same support can be extended to the tea estates for oil palm cultivation. The government of Assam should proceed with this for planting the permitted number of oil palm trees per hectare of land. As per norms, a hectare of land can be used for the plantation of 143 oil palm trees."

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