Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu seeks more areas under palm oil

OUR CORRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu Wednesday requested the Centre for increasing oil palm coverage in the state to 12000-15000 hectares, in the first year of the cabinet announcement of the National Mission on Edible Oils - Oil Palm (NMEO-OP).

Taking part in the virtual meeting with Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar and DoNER Minister G Kishan Reddy, Khandu said that slow coverage of oil palm cultivation in the state was due to lack of commitment from the promoters in setting up of processing factories, that had led to losing of confidence among the farmers. He added that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with one of the promoters was cancelled and meetings called with the existing ones to fast track the mission, an official communiqué informed here.

Allaying the fear of impact of oil palm cultivation on forests in the state, Pema Khandu said it is unlikely to have any effect since the identified areas for the purpose covers only the wastelands. He informed that a committee from the central government has already identified an area of 1.33-lakh hectares of wasteland for oil palm cultivation.

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