Complexities of oil palm farming in Northeast

The National Level Review and Workshop on Sustainable Oil Palm Cultivation, which concluded in Guwahati on Wednesday, has put the spotlight on the unsettled debate over the proposed expansion of oil palm in the Northeast region. Pushing the mission, ignoring the apprehension voiced by experts about likely adverse impacts on ecology and livelihood, could turn out to be a hasty step. Some experts have flagged the concern of oil palm causing irreversible loss of biodiversity through reduction of plant diversity resulting from monocropping. Key stakeholders from government bodies, farmers, private companies, and international organisations, however, lobbied for sustainable oil palm cultivation in the region. The Department of Agriculture, Assam organised the two-day workshop in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (DA&FW), Government of India. The reassessment committee of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research assessed that of the 28 lakh hectares found to be fit for oil palm cultivation, 9.62 lakh hectares are in the Northeast region. In 2020, the year in which the reassessment was carried out, the area under oil palm cultivation in the region was less than 40,000 hectares, which explains the rationale behind the prioritisation of the Northeastern states for expansion of oil palm cultivation in the country under the National Mission on Edible Oils—Oil Palm (NMEO-OP). India is heavily dependent on the import of palm oil to meet rising demand for edible oil driven by an increase in consumption. Official data shows that about 57% of the edible oil demand in the country is met through import, and palm accounts for about 60% of the total import. The government has set the target of increasing the share of palm oil produced in the country from the current level of 2% to 20 % over the next five-six years. The target is indicative of the push for oil palm cultivation in the region over the next couple of years. The pressure for increasing domestic production of palm is expected to mount with skyrocketing retail prices of edible oil burning holes in consumers’ pockets. The sudden hike in edible oil price is attributed to increasing the basic import tax on crude and refined edible oil from nil to 20%. The government justified the move by stating that it would benefit the oilseed farmers in the country and augment their income. The government also directed the edible oil industry not to hike the retail prices after the imposition of import tax, on the ground that the industry had already stocked a reserve of edible oil imported at lower import duties, which would last for a period ranging from 30 to 45 days. The rise in edible oil prices has dampened the festival spirit as it has affected consumers. The prevailing situation may help the government mobilise support for boosting domestic production of palm oil in focused areas such as the Northeast region. Assam Agriculture Minister Atul Bora, while addressing the workshop, stressed the state’s role in spearheading the country’s palm oil sector in the whole of the Northeast as well as in the country. The state government and other stakeholders of the oil palm mission in the region have lessons to learn from the withdrawal of a section of farmers in Goalpara and Kamrup districts citing non-remunerative prices for their oil palm fruits. Experts opposing the move to expand the area under oil palm in the region also claim that the cultivation of the plant adversely affected soil fertility and posed impediments in reusing those plots of land for growing alternative crops. They also argue that traditional jhum fields sustain rich biodiversity due to the practice of multiple cropping, but with monocropping of oil palm, richness in biodiversity is getting lost, adding to the climate change impact woes of the farmers. The Mizoram Agriculture Department, however, contradicts such claims and insists that oil palm is ideal as it has the capacity to repair land degraded due to jhum cultivation and deforestation and augment farmers’ income. Mizoram has the highest share of about 78% of the total land under oil palm cultivation in the region, and studying the experience of oil palm farmers is critical to arriving at a pragmatic conclusion about the advantages and disadvantages of expansion of the area under the crop in other states of the region. The region has a fragile ecology, which is already under pressure from the impact of climate change resulting from global warming, a rise in carbon emissions, and rapid expansion of infrastructure. It also has a crucial role to play in the country’s climate change mitigation through conservation of its rich biodiversity and achieving the goals of decarbonisation. This calls for the states in the region to take a cautious approach towards oil palm cultivation and consider its impact on the ecology as cautioned by experts and not let investment decisions be influenced only by economic considerations alone.