Khammam: Efforts are on to set up another palm oil factory in Kunchaparthy in Vemsoor mandal. and a mega palm oil nursery at Lankapalli in Sattupalli mandal. It will be the third oil palm factory in the erstwhile Khammam district after the ones at Apparaopet in Dammapet and Aswaraopet.
Though there is huge demand for edible oil, the government is unable to supply palm oil saplings to farmers interested in taking up the crop. The making of palm seedlings is a time-taking exercise and the nurseries in the district are unable to produce them to meet the demand.
The government is importing palm seedlings from Indonesia, Thailand and Mexico. It became a time-taking process to shift the seedlings from these countries through ships.
The farmers came forward to raise palm oil after the government conducted awareness programmes to shift them to alternative crops from paddy. The escalating prices of palm oil prices drew the attention of peasants.
The palm fruit bunch price touched Rs 19,000 in April and May 2021. Some of the farmers are getting Rs 1.5 per lakh on palm cultivation and Devarapalli Harikrishna in Mandalapalli in Dammapet mandal is a best example for it.
Many of the farmers came forward to raise palm oil as part of chainging of crop pattern plan. But, the private and government nurseries are unable to supply the seedlings as per the demand of the farmers.
Keeping all the problems in view in increasing palm cultivation in Telangana, the government planned to set up nurseries to raise palm seedlings on one side and establish oil palm crushing units. The government asked the Telangana State Cooperative Oilseeds Growers Federation to take up palm nurseries and oil palm units.
As part of it, the officials found 70 acres of government land at Kunchaparthy in Vemsoor mandal for a palm oil crushing plant. A mega nursery for the purpose of growing palm seedlings will come up at Lankapalli. TS Oilseeds officials found land at Lankapalli and they will acquire a private land adjacent to the government land if needed.
