Agriculture Minister Atul Bora inaugurates plantation of oil-palm seedlings

LAKHIMPUR: Minister of Agriculture, Government of Assam, Atul Bora, formally planted oil palm seedlings at Bokanola village under Boginadi Gaon Panchayat of Lakhimpur district under the ‘’National Edible Oil Mission- Oil Palm Scheme’.

With the successful implementation of this scheme, the Central Government is aiming to make India self-reliant in the production of edible oils and reduce the import of edible oils from different countries of the world. At present, India is importing 60-70 per cent of edible oil. Palm oil is the main one among them. Therefore, the Government of India launched this special scheme in August 2021 to expand the cultivation of this oil palm on unused or fallow land in different parts of the country and make the country self-reliant in the production of edible oil. A total of 22 states, including the north-eastern states, have been taken up to implement the scheme.

Accordingly, the Government of Assam has also laid a lot of emphasis on the welfare of farmers under this scheme through expansion of its area of production in the State and increasing the production of oil. Under this scheme, oil palm has been earmarked for cultivation on a total of 2 lakh hectares of agricultural land in Assam and various steps have been taken by the Government of Assam to achieve this goal.

Currently, arrangements have been made to implement this scheme in 18 districts of Assam and these districts are Kamrup, Goalpara, Chirang, Udalguri, Sonitpur, Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Karbi Anglong, West Karbi Anglong, Dima Hasao, Dhemaji and Lakhimpur. Since oil palm is a brand new crop for the farmers of Assam, its seedlings are not available in Assam, the government has selected experienced oil palm companies through tenders and appointed them as programme implementing partners. On this account, 3F Oil Palm is in charge of Lakhimpur district. Further a Project Management Team has been constituted under the chairmanship of the Deputy Commissioner for implementation and monitoring of the schemes at the district level.

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