Manipur urges its farmers to focus on oil palm cultivation

Guwahati: Manipur Agriculture Minister Thongam Biswajit Singh urged people to accelerate the cultivation of oil palm in order to make our nation economically viable.

Today, during a National Workshop on Oil Palm Promotion in Imphal, he emphasised the need for more money to expand the area of coverage for oil palm planting, despite the fact that the state has previously identified significant tracts of prospective land for such plantation.

"India is one of the major importers of oil palm, draining a considerable amount of money from the country." Once large-scale oil palm farming begins, the vast sums spent on imports might be diverted to other development initiatives, he says. He urged farmers to take up the initiative of growing oil palm as soon as possible in order to make our country economically viable.

The workshop was hosted by the Department of Agriculture of the Government of Manipur as part of the CSS of the National Mission on Edible Oils and Oil Palm (NMEO-OP). Speaking at the event, Chief Minister N. Biren Singh claimed that there was public concern over soil and forest degradation, and that nothing could be grown on the land after the oil palm plantation was established.

He stated that the event was organised to discuss and make people aware of the scientifically verified facts that oil palm plantations create no harm.

He went on to say that other crops, such as pineapple and coffee, may be grown effectively within the confines of oil palm plantation regions. The Chief Minister praised the abilities and efforts of the Oil Palm Manipur team and Agriculture Department officials for being able to grow seedlings of oil palm in a short period of time, citing India as the world's top importer of edible oil. He stated his perspective on the importance of everyone contributing to our nation's self-sufficiency and economic progress, as many of the products we use are imported from outside the country.

He stated that the Oil Palm Project in Manipur was essentially inaugurated on November 12, 2020, and that promising sites of 66,652 hectares had been selected in six districts by validating appropriate places through observation and that the plantation had begun. He stated that there had been a delay in project growth due to people's concerns about the negative effects of oil palm plantations.

As a result, he urged the workshop's specialists and scientists to provide a conclusion with a good message following the meeting, so that the worry may be alleviated. Representatives from Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, and Nagaland, as well as scientists, experts, and other government officials, attended the event.

It should be noted that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, in his address at the virtual foundation stone laying ceremony of the Manipur Water Supply Project on July 23, 2020, urged farmers in the North-Eastern States to engage in oil palm cultivation in order to make India self-sufficient in edible oils.