ADILABAD: Oil palm is the new buzzword in agriculture in the district. This crop takes very little from the farmer but gives a bounty in return. There is no uncertainty over the reward as the demand is always evergreen. Farmers in the district are now diverting to oil palm in pursuit of better returns after burning their fingers with traditional crops which always face severe market vicissitudes.
Govt support
The district administration is encouraging the farmers to switch over to the new crop. It is supporting the farmers with supply of saplings. The administration is raising 1.93 lakh plants in nurseries in 3,876 acre for them.
The officials hope to motivate the farmers to go in for the cultivation of oil palm in 1,368 acres. They are preparing to distribute 68,400 plants. They have divided mandals into Boath, Talmadugu Indervalli, Gudithanoor and Narnoor clusters to distribute the plants to the farmers who have been identified for raising oil palm crop. The plants being distributed are about 11 months old and have grown to a height of 11 metre.
District Collector Sikta Patnaik recently inspected Talmadugu nursery and went over the programme with the officials on motivation and supply of the plants in time to the farmers apart from providing them scientific inputs as it is for the first time that farmers are experimenting with oil palm.District Horticulture officer G Srinivas Reddy said plants of Malaysian variety of M1 161 are being raised in the nursery. “The Collector inspected water availability and soil fertility for the plants in the nursery,” he said.