Hyderabad:Agriculture minister Tummala Nageswara Rao slammed the Central government over its decision to reduce duties on import of cooking oils, and said the decision hurt Telangana’s oil palm farmers.
Reacting to the Centre’s decision, Nageswara Rao had written to Prime Minister and Union ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Pralhad Joshi demanding that the Centre must first think about farmers in the country and not place the interests of importers above the farmers. Nageswara Rao also urged Chief Ministers A. Revanth Reddy and N. Chandrababu Naidu to take up the matter with the Centre and ensure local oil palm farmers interests are not hurt.
He said Telangana was number one in the country growing oil palm in 1.19 lakh hectares with 88,621 farmers depending on this crop for their livelihoods.The Centre’s decision does not make any sense as it, on the one hand, encourages oil palm cultivation and now has reduced import duties on both crude and processed oil palm.
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