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Excess production turns bane to farmers
Excess production turns bane to farmers. The oil palm cultivators, who are relatively better placed than other farmers in the State, are now feeling the heat which they never experienced hitherto as their harvest started to putrefy due to a single oil palm factory.
OIL PALM INDUSTRY
Lone oil palm factory at Aswaraopet incapable of processing abundant inflows of fresh fruit bunches
Khammam: The oil palm cultivators, who are relatively better placed than other farmers in the State, are now feeling the heat which they never experienced hitherto as their harvest started to putrefy due to a single oil palm factory. The factory at Aswaraopet is incapable of processing the abundant inflows of the palm fresh fruit bunches (FFBs) this season.
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Barring a few hiccups, the oil palm growers in the region are reaping benefits which they never dreamt of since the government had established a crushing unit with a capacity of 10-tonne-per-hour at Aswaraopet in 2007. As of now, the oil palm is being grown on 11,500 hectares, mainly spread across Dammapeta, Aswaraopet and Sattupalli mandals in Khammam district.
The quantum of production is around 74,000 metric tonnes per annum. Following the abundance of oil palm cultivation in the region, the authorities raised the capacity of the unit to 15-tonne an hour a few years ago. Besides this, the Oil Fed, which was split for AP and Telangana recently, started the works of a second unit with a capacity of 30-tonnes-per-hour at Apparaopet in Dammapet mandal to cater to the needs of farmers.
With August and September months being the prime time for harvesting, the unit has been receiving anywhere between 700 tonnes and 800 tonnes of FFB per day, while the unit could process only 350 tonnes of FFB on a single day. As a result, a whopping 2,500 tonnes of FFB was piled up in the oil palm unit for the last few days.
Moreover, the availability of oil palm at low cost in the international market is also one of the reasons behind stagnation of oil stocks in the processing units, it is learnt. There has been a demand by the Solvent Extractors Association (SEA) to hike the import duty on oil palm from the existing 7.5 per cent to 25 per cent to support the industry and the growers.
Speaking to The Hans India, the oil palm unit in-charge Divisional Officer K Ashok said they were helpless as the farmers kept coming with the FFB despite their suggestion to stop harvesting for a few more days. With all the nearby units in Andhra Pradesh such as Pedavegi and Godrej, too receiving abundant FFBs, the farmers in the district were in a crisis.
He said the Oil Fed declared a three-day holiday from Monday to Wednesday to clear the accumulated FFB stocks. Referring to the new unit at Apparaopet in Dammapet mandal, he said the unit would be ready by March 2016 as the process of tenders was already completed.
An oil palm grower, Nallagulla Sitaram of Mandalapalli village under Dammapet mandal, expressed fear that the holiday could spell doom for him. The price of FFB per tonne is Rs 6,532 in August. According to sources, the putrefied FFBs could cost around Rs 50 lakh.
By Adepu Mahender
