Tatsat Chronicle Magazine

“NERAMAC revival and Oil Palm Mission a big boost to NE farmers”

August 20, 2021

Union Minister for Culture, Tourism and Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Mr. G Kishan Reddy said “the government is making relentless efforts towards fulfilling the vision of a prosperous farmer for a prosperous nation. Farmers are the bedrock of our country’s strength and since 7 years our focus has been on the farmer centric policies with a focus on doubling farmer’s income”.

Recently, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by the Prime Minister approved a revival package of Rs.77.45 crore (Rs. 17 crores towards fund based support and Rs.60.45 crore towards non-fund based support) for the revival of North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Limited (NERAMAC), a central Public Section Enterprises under the administrative control of Ministry of Development of North Eastern Regional (MDoNER). The Union Minister said “The revival of NERAMAC will ensure remunerative prices to the farmers and provide better farming facilities and training to the farmers of the North Eastern Region”.

On the same day, the Union Cabinet also approved the National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) as a new Centrally Sponsored Scheme with a special focus on the North east region and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Minister tweeted “The Union Cabinet has approved implementation of National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm. Identifying the NE region as a special focus area, it aims to reduce import dependency of palm oil benefitting the oil palm farmers & create employment generation.”

The Mission aims to increase the area under cultivation for oil palm by an additional area of 6.5 lakh hectare (ha.) thereby reaching the target of 10 lakh hectares in the next 5 years.“India is the largest edible oil importer in the world and imports 133.50 lakh tonnes costing 80 thousand crores. The decision taken under the Prime Minister’s leadership will ensure us to be self-reliant and cut our import bill thus contributing to “Atmanirbhar Bharat”.

The Minister also highlighted the existing experience of states such as Mizoram in the North-eastern region that are ranked among the top 5 cultivators of Oil Palm in the country. “Farmers of states such as Mizoram already have significant Oil Palm cultivation experience and we can leverage their expertise in the rest of the North eastern states”, he said.