Plantations told to take lead in guarding environment

The plantation industry should play a leading role in the protection of environment that will also help the sector as well, said Rajani Ranjan Rashmi, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry here on Tuesday.

Urging the industry to come up with environmental projects, he said the plantation industry will need to come up with rehabilitation projects. “We have a fund of ₹20,000 crore which can be utilised.”

Rashmi was addressing the 121{+s}{+t} annual conference of the United Planters’ Association of Southern India.

Asked to elaborate, he told reporters that he was referring to the compensatory afforestation projects given to State Governments.

“Each State is given a share. The fund is under the Supreme Court. The State Government and the plantation industry should come together in protecting the environment,” he said.

Stating that there were projects involving forests, he said that including the plantation industry would be an innovative thing to do.

Responding to some of the issues raised by UPASI President Peter Mathias, Rashmi said that the long-term solution for the sector is sustainability, cooperation and collective efforts.

“The industry has not done enough to emerge as a major exporting sector. The domestic market is large, but quality is the prime concern in the global market,” he said and urged the industry stakeholders to rise to this challenge.

In his Presidential address, Mathias highlighted some of the concerns of the plantation industry, such as the proposed National Land Reforms Policy, which contained a recommendation to do away with exemption granted to plantation lands from land ceiling provisions, draft notification on the eco-sensitive areas on Western Ghats, the need for a drastic overhaul in the Plantation Labour Act, Land Reforms Act and the Minimum Wages Act as it applies to the plantations among others.

Briefly touching upon commodity-wise issues, he said the amendments to the Tea Act proposed by the Tea Board are highly regulatory in nature and sought the Ministry’s help to consider the submissions made by UPASI in this regard.

To tackle the challenges in the coffee sector such as over production in major coffee producing countries, escalating input cost including labour, Mathias suggested the need for proactive research and development. “When compared with other coffee growing countries such as Vietnam and Brazil, the research and development facilities in the Indian coffee sector is inadequate,” he said.

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