Centre revives NERAMAC to boost oil palm mission in North East
19 Aug 2021
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The government is implementing a Rs77.45 crore package for revival of the North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Limited (NERAMAC), a central public sector enterprise under the administrative control of ministry for development of the north-eastern region (MDoNER), in a move aimed at boosting the cultivation of oil palm in the region.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), at a recent meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had approved a revival package of Rs77.45 crore (Rs17 crore towards fund based support and Rs60.45 crore towards non-fund based support) for revival of NERAMAC.
“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,” union minister for development of north-eastern region, G Kishan Reddy, said.
Along with the package for the North East, the union cabinet had 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 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 benefiting the oil palm farmers and creating employment generation,” the minister tweeted.
The mission aims to increase the area under oil palm cultivation by an additional area of 6.5 lakh hectare, thereby reaching the target of 1 million hectares in the next 5 years. “India is the largest edible oil importer in the world and imports 13.35 million tonnes costing Rs80,000 crore annually. The decision taken under the prime minister’s leadership will ensure us to be self-reliant and cut our import bill thus contributing to the prime minister’s vision of an Atmanirbhar Bharat,” the minister stated.
“The government has identified the north-eastern region as a special focus area as the target set for the North East in the next 5 years is more than 50 per cent of the overall target of 6.5 lakh hectares set for the entire nation. On behalf of the farmers of the north eastern states, I am grateful to the prime minister for this visionary decision,”Kishan Reddy added.
The minister also highlighted existing experience of states such as Mizoram in the North East 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.
