Oil palm cultivation: Godrej Agrovet signs MoUs with Assam, Manipur and Tripura

Diversified agri-business firm Godrej Agrovet on Tuesday said it has inked MoUs with the Assam, Manipur, and Tripura governments for the development and promotion of oil palm cultivation under a central scheme.

Godrej Agrovet is the largest oil palm processor in India and works directly with farmers for the entire crop cycle.

As part of the memorandums of understanding (MoUs), Godrej Agrovet said it will be allotted land across the three states for the promotion and development of sustainable palm oil plantations in the region.

The collaboration will bring new opportunities and growth in building oil palm plantations in these three states and would help provide the required support to the farmers, it said.

''Currently, we have around 65,000 hectares under palm oil cultivation across the country, which we plan to increase to 1 lakh hectares in the next few years,'' the company's Managing Director Balram Singh Yadav said.

The company is confident that the National Mission on Edible Oils - Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) along with the active participation of responsible organizations such as Godrej Agrovet will lead to bridging the gap in India's oil mission, he said.

In August 2021, the Centre had launched NMEO-OP with a planned outlay of Rs 11,040 crore for raising oil palm area to 10 lakh hectares by 2025-26 and 16.7 lakh hectares by 2029-30 with a special focus on North-East and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Godrej Agrovet CEO (oil palm) Sougata Niyogi said, ''With our processing plant in Mizoram, we are prepared to sustainably serve the demand of the North-East markets. ...With the active support of the state governments, we can develop 15,000 hectares in four northeastern states in the next five years. " India, a net importer of palm oil, follows a sustainable model of palm oil plantation which is based on intercropping and scientific farming processes. Most of the palm oil cultivation in the country is done by converting paddy fields which have been contributing to surplus produce.

Godrej Agrovet's palm oil-focussed work is present in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Goa, Maharashtra, and Mizoram.

Its range of products, including crude palm oil, crude palm kernel oil, and palm kernel cake, are produced at its six oil palm mills spread across the country.