MARKET DEVELOPMENT
Oil is Well
Oil is Well
25/01/2014 (Times Of India) - Balu B Patel of Roda village in Valsad district has 150 oil palms on six hectares of land, and is now into palm oil business. Earlier, he had chickoo plantation. But, he decided to grow oil palms and spent Rs 10,000 per year on them for three years without any return.
"I get Rs 6 per kg from companies like Godrej. They buy my whole stock. The average annual return per hectare works out to Rs 1.5 lakh," the 50-year-old farmer said. At present, oil palm is cultivated on 2,700 hectare of land in eight districts from Anand to Valsad.
Dinesh Pataliya, assistant director, horticulture, Surat and Bharuch, Gujarat government, said, "Many farmers in south Gujarat have started oil palm cultivation. It is not that laborious and the cultivation starts to give return after a three-year period. Major companies, too, provide technical guidance to farmers on oil palm cultivation."
State government provides saplings free to farmers. It also provides subsidy and aid for manure on a yearly basis to farmers, which work out to Rs 12,000 per hectares for three years.
Oil palm is widely grown in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Goa and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Farmers in Gujarat have just taken up its cultivation. This is because 90 per cent of people in Gujarat use groundnut oil for cooking.
According to available figures, India imports over 8 million tonnes of edible oil, out of which about 4 million tonnes is palm oil. In India, the supply of vegetable oil is increasing at the rate of 2 per cent per annum where as the consumption is rising at the rate of 4 per cent per annum.
"I get Rs 6 per kg from companies like Godrej. They buy my whole stock. The average annual return per hectare works out to Rs 1.5 lakh," the 50-year-old farmer said. At present, oil palm is cultivated on 2,700 hectare of land in eight districts from Anand to Valsad.
Dinesh Pataliya, assistant director, horticulture, Surat and Bharuch, Gujarat government, said, "Many farmers in south Gujarat have started oil palm cultivation. It is not that laborious and the cultivation starts to give return after a three-year period. Major companies, too, provide technical guidance to farmers on oil palm cultivation."
State government provides saplings free to farmers. It also provides subsidy and aid for manure on a yearly basis to farmers, which work out to Rs 12,000 per hectares for three years.
Oil palm is widely grown in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Goa and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Farmers in Gujarat have just taken up its cultivation. This is because 90 per cent of people in Gujarat use groundnut oil for cooking.
According to available figures, India imports over 8 million tonnes of edible oil, out of which about 4 million tonnes is palm oil. In India, the supply of vegetable oil is increasing at the rate of 2 per cent per annum where as the consumption is rising at the rate of 4 per cent per annum.