Ever since the Modi government announced the National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm with a special focus on Northeast India, the Arunachal Pradesh government has gone all out to facilitate its implementation.
 Chief Minister Pema Khandu has been quite vocal regarding this and on Tuesday attending the ‘Business Summit for North Eastern States’ on the national mission at Guwahati, said that the roadmap for implementation of the ambitious National Mission on Edible Oils-Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) has been finalized and the state government will be implementing it on the ground soon.
Arunachal Pradesh, geographically the largest state in North East, has about 1.33 lakh hectares of land feasible for oil palm cultivation as assessed by a central team in 2019.
The Centre’s National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm with an earmarked ₹11,040 crore to encourage palm oil production in India has a special focus on Northeast India.
Despite its affordability and multi-purpose use in food and bio-fuel, palm oil remains a controversial commodity and has divided people’s opinions worldwide.  The large-scale commercial oil palm plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia have become grim examples for what this plant can do to a country’s biodiversity. 
It is well understood that locals need more incomes and livelihoods today. Converting agricultural land for monocultural cultivation will affect biodiversity therefore good forest areas must be protected.
In a good move Arunachal has announced to utilise unused wastelands in foothill areas for oil palm cultivation and not destroy forests for the same.   
 Countering anti-oil palm school of thoughts, Khandu urged the experts, social media influencers and journalists to ‘get the facts right’ and pass the ‘right information’ to the masses instead of propagating the ‘unfounded misinformation’ on effects of oil palm cultivation being circulated mostly through social media. This statement sounds quite incredulous with the CM asking “experts” to ‘get the facts right’.
Despite the high oil per hectare yield and market, oil palm is not without genuine concerns. Instead of muffling cautious voices,  Arunachal Pradesh will benefit from open discussion to arrive at a solution which works out for all.
A lot is at stake here and the government must examine the dangers and potential risks vis-à-vis benefits before making an informed decision.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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