Rajahmundry MP Daggubati Purandeswari- has urged the Central Government to take immediate measures to comprehensively modernize the old palm oil mills in Andhra Pradesh.
Raja Pentapati
AP Bureau Chief
March 24 | Bharat News(Google’s Five-Star Rated News Service)
Amaravati: On Tuesday, Daggubati Purandeswari drew the Central Government’s attention to the urgent need for the modernization of palm oil processing mills in Andhra Pradesh, raising the matter in the Indian Parliament under Rule 377 as an issue of urgent public importance.
Andhra Pradesh stands as the state with the largest area under palm oil cultivation in India. While palm oil is currently being cultivated across approximately 2.49 lakh hectares throughout the state, she noted that this activity provides livelihoods to nearly 1.97 lakh hardworking farmers, particularly in the East and West Godavari districts.
Recognizing palm oil as a long-term commercial crop, the Central Government is actively promoting its cultivation under the National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) scheme, with the aim of boosting domestic production and reducing the country’s reliance on imports.
She emphasized that, given the current scenario where India spends over ₹70,000 crore annually on edible oil imports, maximizing domestic crude palm oil production is a matter of national priority. It was explained that the Oil Extraction Ratio (OER) directly impacts farmers’ income, noting that a mere 1 percent decline in OER results in a loss of approximately 10 kilograms of oil for every ton of Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFBs) processed.
It was further pointed out that, despite the State Government having previously provided financial assistance, numerous cooperative and government-run palm oil mills continue to operate using outdated batch-processing machinery. This situation, it was stated, leads to avoidable losses in oil yield, thereby causing financial detriment to the farmers.
Against this backdrop, the MP strongly urged the Central Government to take immediate measures to comprehensively modernize the aging palm oil mills in Andhra Pradesh by providing targeted financial and technical assistance under the NMEO-OP scheme.
She asserted that through these technical modernization initiatives, not only would oil production capacity increase significantly, but farmers’ livelihoods would also be safeguarded, enabling India to accelerate its progress toward self-reliance in edible oils.
Andhra Pradesh
