By Firstdespatch Desk Nov 10, 2023
Agartala, Nov 10 (FD) With the idea that the cultivation of Oil Palm seed in large scale can be beneficial for Tripura, state minister for agriculture Ratan Lal Nath, accompanied by the secretary of the department, Apurba Roy, visited Malaysia to study the process of cultivation of seeds and its final production.
He visited the Oil Palm Research Institute in Kuala Lampur, capital of Malaysia to attend the International Conference and Exhibition on palm oil.
As the experience shared by him, the visit created good opportunity to know about the procedure of cultivation and gather firsthand knowledge.
Nath is of the view that the state agriculture department has already stared cultivation throughout the state. In a social media post he said, “oil palm is the profitable cash crop now being cultivated and used in India”.
Addressing the international conference Nath informed that the seed is being cultivated in Unakoti, north Tripura, Dhalai, Khowai and Sepahijala districts, adding that two giants in the field of palm oil cultivation and processing Godrej Agro-vet Limited and Patanjalai food private limited have decided for cultivation of the seed.
The Godrej Agrovet Limited has already set up a major nursery at Nalkata of Dhalai district and managed to get 1, 50,000 plants of exotic type imported from Indonesia and Thailand . Another nursery has come up at Garzi in Udaipur under Gomati district. Apart from this, the Patanjali private limited has also set up a nursery in Khowai district.
“It is expected that this new drive will pay dividend in future in creating employments and boost economy. Government of India has assured to spend 90% cost of launching palm oil cultivation in the state. Many officials of the agriculture dept. and farmers welfare department have been trained by the experts of Indian Council of Agricultural Research on palm oil cultivation”, Nath said. FD JK