Exempt Land Ceiling Act for palm plantation to boost coverage, reduce import, says Mehta

The Solvent Extractors’ Association has urged the Government to announce palm cultivation as plantation crop and exempt the one million hectares of identified land for palm cultivation from the Land Ceiling Act.

The move will not only facilitate corporate participation but also help government realise its target to bring 10 lakh hectares under palm plantation and produce four million tonnes of palm fruits a year.

In 1983, the government had identified specific land for palm plantation in Goa, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu but has managed to bring only 2.50 lakh hectares under palm cultivation. Of late, the Government has included Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh in the 33-year-old plan to boost palm production and reduce India’s dependence on imports.

BV Mehta, Executive Director, the Solvent Extractors’ Association said once palm cultivation is given plantation crop status corporate houses can take it up in a big way as in the case of tea and rubber.

Though amending overall Land Ceiling Act is a touchy subject, both the state and centre governments can amend the law only for the one million hectares of identified land for palm plantation, he suggested.

The move will help India reduce import bill substantially as the country ships in about nine million tonnes of palm oil annually. Currently, companies such as Godrej Agrovet and Ruchi Soya are involved in palm plantation through contract farming and the yields are comparable to that of Indonesia and Malaysia – the largest palm producers.

Previous experiences have shown that farmers uproot the plant if the prices drop sharply. The industry has developed various techniques to halve the water usage of 240-litre a day in palm cultivation, said Mehta.

On the government permission to allow farmers grow genetically modified (GM) oil seeds, Mehta said the deadline for submission of individual opinion on the subject ends this week and a decision is expected before the next crop season. The industry expects government to allow GM crop in mustard.

Meanwhile, he said, the government should reduce import duty on non-GM oilseeds from 30 per cent to 5-10 per cent as the oilseeds produced in India are not enough to operate mills at full capacity.

At present oil mills operate at less than half of their annual capacity of 30 million tonne. To protect farmers’ interest, said Mehta, the Government can allow oilseed imports during lean season between April and September.

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