Veroli Zhimo
The National Mission on Edible Oils-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP), approved by the Union Cabinet on August 18, will increase the area under oil palm cultivation by an additional area of 6.5 lakh hectare (ha) by 2025-26 and bring a total area of 10 lakh ha under oil palm plantations across the country.
According to an official release from the Cabinet Secretariat, the scheme will be implemented as a new Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) with a special focus on the North East and the Andaman region with a financial outlay of Rs 11,040 crore (Rs 8,844 crore Government of India’s share and Rs 2,196 crore is States’ share). Meanwhile, the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, in a Twitter update later informed that the funding pattern of NMEO-OP between Government of India (GoI) and State Government is 60:40 in case of General States and 90:10 in case of NE and Hilly States.
In order to give impetus to the NE and Andaman regions, the GoI will additionally bear a cost of 2% of the Crude Palm Oil (CPO) price to ensure that the farmers are paid at par with the rest of India, the release said.
With India being one of the biggest consumers of palm oil in the world, the scheme appears to be one that will ramp up its own production to save foreign exchange and reduce dependence on import, benefit the oil palm farmers, increase capital investment, create employment generation, and reduce the import dependence.
However, there are manifold concerns against India’s push for palm oil cultivation.
According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) palm oil has been and continues to be a major driver of deforestation of some of the world’s most biodiverse forests, destroying the habitat of already endangered species like the Orangutan, pygmy elephant and Sumatran rhino in Indonesia and Malaysia. “Large-scale conversion of tropical forests to oil palm plantations has a devastating impact on a huge number of plant and animal species” and also leads to an “increase in human-wildlife conflict,” it stated in its overview of palm oil cultivation.
This is a cause of concern especially in fragile biodiversity rich areas like Nagaland and the rest of the NE states and Andaman & Nicobar Islands which are areas of ‘special focus’ in the NMEO-OP.
Under the National Mission on Oilseed and Oil Palm (NMOOP) launched during 2014-15 by GoI, cultivation of oil palm has intensified in six districts of Nagaland—Dimapur, Mon, Mokokchung, Longleng, Wokha and Peren, as per the state Department of Agriculture’s website. A total of 2000 ha of oil palm has been successfully cultivated in the six districts, it said.
However, the website failed to mention if there are any checks and balances or punitive measures for socially disruptive and ecologically destructive practices or if there is a state policy on oil palm farming.
Before any further oil palm expansions are carried out in Nagaland, consultations with local communities and social and environmental scientists is essential, rather than leaving policy formulation to the Union Ministry of Agriculture.
It would also augur well for the state government as well as the Union Cabinet to consider the possibility that traditional practices like jhum and community-based forest management contribute much more to local economies and livelihoods than oil palm can, especially in a state like Nagaland. Further, these traditional practices with diverse social, economic and biodiversity benefits are also ecologically sustainable, provide vital ecosystem services, and help conserve rare and unique wildlife.
Palm oil might be an easy source of income for farmers but unless the government can come up with an extremely responsible, robust and highly inclusive framework for oil palm expansion, Nagaland could follow in the uncertain footsteps of other countries that are facing the fallouts of injudicious and aggressive oil palm expansion.
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