Agriculture Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao has urged officials from the Horticulture department to encourage farmers to grow oil palm as planned for 2024-25. The government is promoting oil palm cultivation and micro-irrigation by providing subsidies to support crop rotation in the state.
In the year 2023-24, around 59,261 acres of land were newly brought under oil palm cultivation. The Central government released Rs.80.10 crore under the Oil Palm Cultivation Scheme, with the state contributing Rs.53.40 crore. However, only Rs.32.72 crore was released in that year, leaving Rs.100.76 crore pending due to various reasons. This delay affected the release of dues to farmers and companies involved in oil palm and drip irrigation.
Following the issues raised by the Horticulture department, the Chief Minister intervened and released the pending amount of Rs.100.76 crore. The department is now working to quickly deposit subsidies for maintenance of oil palm plantations and inter-cropping in farmers’ accounts within 2-3 days.
In the previous year 2022-23, the government released Rs.55.36 crore for micro-irrigation, settling pending payments to companies installing drip devices in farmers’ fields for oil palm and other crops.
