Hyderabad: Telangana minister Ponnam Prabhakar urged farmers to expand oil palm cultivation, saying demand for the crop remained higher than production. He also announced incentives to encourage villages to increase the area under cultivation.
The minister participated in the Mega Palm Oil Plantation programme at Jangaon village in Akkannapet mandal of Husnabad constituency on Friday. Meanwhile, he and minister Vivek Venkataswamy planted oil palm saplings during the event.
Oil palm cultivation incentives announced
Ponnam Prabhakar said the government had organised meetings with farmers owning more than five acres to promote oil palm cultivation. Further, he said Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy had inaugurated an oil palm factory at Narmetta.
The minister said the district had set a target of bringing 50,000 acres under oil palm cultivation. He added that farmers had already cultivated the crop on more than 14,000 acres.
He announced a development incentive of ₹5 lakh for villages that crossed 100 acres under palm cultivation. Additionally, villages with more than 200 acres would receive ₹10 lakh as an incentive.
Ponnam Prabhakar warned that El Niño could lead to drought and rainfall deficit. He advised farmers to grow crops suitable for dry conditions and said oil palm cultivation faced fewer problems from monkeys and climate variations.
Minister Vivek Venkataswamy said India needed to increase domestic oil palm production to reduce dependence on imports. He said international conflicts had pushed up edible oil prices and stressed the need to boost local production.
Vivek added that oil palm required relatively less water. Finally, he announced that he would contribute an additional ₹5 lakh, as district in-charge minister, to villages that achieved 100 acres under oil palm cultivation, matching the incentive announced by Ponnam Prabhakar.
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— Ponnam Prabhakar (@Ponnam_INC) July 10, 2026