State to seek higher price for palm oil

The state government will take out a delegation to impress upon the Centre on the need to raise the price of palm against the background of palm cultivators’ plea for an increase in its price by Rs 8 per kg.

The delegation comprising of palm cultivators in the state, which stands second in the country in palm cultivation, will be taken to Delhi shortly, Minister for Horticulture and Prison Umesh Katti said here at the weekend.

Promising all support to palm cultivators, he told reporters after inaugurating a palm seed cultivation centre and workshop at H D Kote and a workshop in Mysore, palm growers needed further help in view of the steep fall in the prices of palm fruits. Presently, the state government gives Rs 5 per kg as support price and this needs to be raised. Therefore, besides addressing letters, he had met Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and would lead the palm cultivators’ delegation to impress upon him of the plight of these growers once again.

Palm tree cultivation on 1.8 million hectares in Karnataka was yielding 4 million tonnes of oil, while the country was importing 7 million tonnes of edible oil worth Rs 20,000 crore to overcome the shortage. The state government was supporting farmers to see this gap is reduced as far as possible, he said adding that during 2008-09 92 taluks of 18 districts cultivated palm. There is scope to increase oil production.

The government, the minister said, had chosen 12 pla-ces for establishing bio-technology laboratories to further research and support horticulture cultivators with latest bio-technology for stepping up production. One such lab would be set up in Mysore, besides a flower auction park. Flower auction parks would also come up at Mandya and Chamarajanagar.

A vegetable market would come up near Lalitha Mahal Palace in Mysore, for which the government had released Rs 1 crore. This would help horticulturists get a fair price. Besides, a horticulture college, affiliated to the Horticulture University, was proposed in Mysore. This would benefit the students of Mandya, Chamarajanagar and Hassan as well, Katti said.

Making the state’s stand clear on Bt brinjal, the minister said a letter had already been written to Sharad Pawar on the adverse impact it would have on the traditional brinjal cultivators in Karnataka. State farmers cultivated around 50 varieties of brinjal and introduction of Bt variety would adversely affect them as they would lose hold of the seeds of these varieties in favour of the multi-national companies. These and other issues had not been discussed with the farmers.

Forest and Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh will be informed of the state’s stand against the introduction of Bt brinjal, Katti added.