Advisor of Agriculture, Mhathung Yanthan on Friday assured the oil palm farmers in the state that the Minimum Share Prices (MSPs) will be maintained and that no company or third party would be able to manipulate the MSPs as they were fixed by the central government. Yanthan said this while addressing a gathering of farmers and department officials at the “Nagaland Mega Oil Palm Plantation Drive-2023, Zone 1” at Angh House, Agri Expo, Chümoukedima.
He said that the state government had signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Godrej Agrovet Ltd on January 10, 2023 and Patanjali Foods Ltd on January 30, 2023 on the MSPs and therefore licenses of the implementing partners or agencies would be cancelled if manipulation of MSPs were reported.
Yanthan also spoke on the central government ‘s separate mission- National Mission for Edible Oil-Oil Palm, which was aimed to increase domestic oil palm production and reduce imports, and thereby encouraged farmers to take advantage of the facilities provided. He assured the farmers that the signed MoU would enable them to sell their products.
He therefore urged farmers to be committed and proud to identify themselves as oil palm farmers and expressed conviction in the success of oil palm cultivation, especially in the Foot Hill areas of Nagaland.
He said oil palm might not be suitable for all areas, for which the department was targeting only wastelands for cultivation, especially Foothill roads area and has set a target of 15,000 hectares in the state, within a period of five years.
He therefore said it was the duty of both the department and farmers to share equal responsibility in expansion of oil palm cultivation in the state to reach the target.
Yanthan later urged farmers to understand the crop better and expressed satisfaction with the department’s efforts in organizing programmes to address farmers’ concerns.
When asked on the possibility of the state having its own processing unit, the advisor informed that the state government, in partnership with the implementing partners would set up the processing unit, but would only be possible only when the state could produce the minimum production level, which was 5500 to 6000 Metric Tons (MT).
Meanwhile, delivering a short speech at the programme, Head, market development, Godrej, Soumyadeep Dutta, acknowledged the concerns expressed by farmers and said that most of the issues had been discussed with the department. Acknowledging the challenges faced by the farmers, he informed that with the support of the state government, Godrej would soon set up a one-stop solution exclusively for oil palm farmers in Nagaland, which would act as a center to serve as a readily accessible hub where farmers could seek technical assistance, share knowledge, and fulfill their agricultural needs.
He further assured that Godrej would be providing fertilizer packages tailored for oil palm cultivation, which include fertilizers, pesticides, and farming equipment, to support the farmers in their endeavors, in the next two to three months. It can be noted that Godrej is the implementing partner responsible for five districts, Dimapur, Wokha, Peren, Niuland and Chümoukedima.
Meanwhile, speaking with media after the programme, he informed that the state would have to produce around 5500 to 6000 MT annually to set up a processing unit in the state.
Asked on the current production quantity in the state, he replied that there was no production since the company took over only this year. Dutta further shared his conviction that Nagaland would be able to perform much better than Mizoram in regards to production quantity.
Earlier, the programme was chaired and welcome address delivered by director of Agriculture, M Ben Yanthan, while presentation of Oil Palm cultivation in the state & brief highlight on the research study on Oil Palm was delivered by the department officials.