Time to further enhance collaboration between the State Governments and industry to uplift Oil Palm farmers

At the recently organized Indian Vegetable Oil Producers Association conference in New Delhi, Godrej Agrovet’s (GAVL) Oil Palm Plantation business (OPP) said that now is the time to further enhance collaboration between the state governments and industry to uplift oil palm farmers in the country.

Speaking at the conference, Sougata Niyogi,CEO, Oil Palm Business, Godrej Agrovet Limited said, “There are lot of misconceptions surrounding oil palm. From health to impact on income of farmers, from the crop consuming more water to it leading to deforestation, it is upon us an industry to collectively address these apprehensions.”

“Since the launch of National Mission of Edible Oil – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) in 2019-20, we have come a long way. However, in order to achieve the vision 3 Million Metric Tonne of Crude Palm Oil by 2030, we need to enhance the collaboration between the state governments and industry. It is only then we will achieve the set targets and enable oil palm farmers prosper,” he further added.

Recently, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) & the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) released the “Dietary Guidelines for Indians-2024.” It highlighted that Oil Palm has a unique balance of saturated and unsaturated fats and helps lower cholesterol.It also reiterated that a balanced intake of fats and recommended moderation & variety of food sources to ensure a well-rounded nutritional profile.

The oil palm plantations require significantly less land compared to other oil seed crops and have a remarkable capacity to yield up to 8 times more oil. Additionally, it also enables inter cropping which has a potential to translate into economic prosperity for smallholders. Hence addressing the audience, Mr. Niyogi highlighted the need for states to adopt NMEO-OP as the element of Viability Gap Funding in the policy, safeguarding farmers from the price movement of oil palm in the market thereby not impacting their income.

From the industry perspective, he mentioned the need to collectively think about the end-to-end value chain to ensure industry maturity and not restrict to edible oil only.