After Andhra and Telangana, Godrej Agrovet eyes Tamil Nadu to expand oil palm area

Godrej Agrovet Ltd (GAVL) is looking to attract farmers back to oil palm cultivation in Tamil Nadu, where acreages were lost to competing crops like sugarcane and also destroyed by cyclones over the past decade.

The oil palm plantation business of GAVL inaugurated its first Samadhan Centre in Thanjavur on Monday to help provide farmers with package of practices, inputs including the planting materials, tools and services to enable them enhance yields and productivity. “After Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, we are focussing on Tamil Nadu in the South, where we see a potential to expand the oil palm area,” Sougata Niyogi, CEO, Oil Palm Business, GAVL, told businessline.

The company is looking to bring more area under oil palm in districts such as Villupuram, Cuddalore, Thanjavur and Thiruvallur, Niyogi said adding that five more Samadhan Centres will be set up in Tamil Nadu over the next few years to support the area expansion.

Oil palm cultivation Tamil Nadu has been reduced to around 5,000 hectares from over 12,000 hectares about a decade ago as farmers shifted to other competing crops like sugarcane. Also, due to the impact of cyclone in 2019, oil palm plantations in about 1,500 hectares were destroyed, he said. GAVL, which operates a processing unit at Ariyalur, has currently has some 2,000 hectares under oil palm.

Measures

“We are looking to triple the area in Tamil Nadu to around 6,000 hectares in three years,” Niyogi said adding that to overcome the cyclone-related challenges in the coastal areas, the company is looking to introduce the dwarf varieties of oil palm and move the cultivation to about 60-70 km in the interiors. Also GAVL is planning to bring the entire area under oil palm cultivation under drip irrigation, he added.

GAVL currently has some 70,000 hectares under oil palm cultivation across the country, which it plans to increase to around one lakh hectares by 2026-27, Niyogi said.