Key Points
Centre allows 5% tea estate land for oil palm cultivation
NMEO-OP mission offers comprehensive financial support
Helps tea industry overcome economic challenges
Aims to reduce edible oil import dependence
Based in Assam, the North Eastern Tea Association (NETA), in its letter dated February 4, 2025, appealed to the central and state governments to extend the oil palm mission scheme to the state's tea estates.
Consequently, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare sent a letter to the Director of Agriculture Assam dated April 1, 2025, stating that it has agreed to extend the scheme for cultivating oil palm trees in 5 percent of tea gardens in the northeastern state.
"Since, the support under NMEO-OP is per hectare for cultivation of oil palm, in case of utilizing up to 5 per cent tea estate land, the same support can be extended to the landowner/estate for every 143 Oil Palm trees (the expected number per hectare) Government of Assam should proceed with this, using the number of trees expected in one hectare as unit for assistance," the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare letter to the Assam government read.
The assistance under oil palm mission -- National Mission on Edible Oils - Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) -- includes planting material, management upto gestation period (4 years), inputs for intercropping, land clearance, bio fencing, drip irrigation, bore well/pump set/water harvesting structure/vermi compost unit, harvesting tools. Additionally, there is also a special package for the northeastern states.
The central government issued operational guidelines for the palm oil mission in April 2022 for availing assistance, which will end in 2025-26. According to NETA, tea estates of Assam could not avail the scheme because of land classification and certain other conditions in the guidelines.
India is hugely dependent on imports of palm oil to meet its edible oil requirements. NMEO-OP was launched with the aim of enhancing edible oilseed production and reducing the import bill for edible oils.
Oil palm cultivation requires substantial capital investment for planting, irrigation, and maintenance during the initial four years of non-harvesting, and the tea industry believes that the support under the oil mission will help them tide over the crisis facing the plantation industry, Bidyananda Barkakoty, Adviser, NETA, said.
NETA, in a statement, said it has conducted an in-house study and found that tea and oil palm can be cultivated in harmony without disruption.
The industry body's study also found that cultivating agar trees, oil palm trees, and other cash crops in the 5 percent of tea garden land has become essential to overcoming the economic challenges currently faced by the tea industry.
The Assam government allowed using 5 percent of total tea garden land for specific purposes, including cash crops, in October 2022. Also, the Assam Cabinet approved notification of the oil palm crop as a cash crop in Assam in January 2025.
Renowned globally for its richly coloured and aromatic tea, Assam's tea industry provides livelihoods to millions, with many others directly or indirectly dependent on the plantations. The state is famous for both Orthodox and CTC (Crush, Tear, Curl) varieties of tea.
About 25 percent of the teas produced in the state are dust grade, and the rest are CTC and orthodox.
But the tea plantation sector in Assam, which reached a crucial milestone of 200 years in 2023, is not in the best of health and has been struggling with issues such as rising production costs, relatively stagnant consumption, subdued prices and crop quality issues.
Assam now produces nearly 700 million kg of tea annually and accounts for around half of India's overall tea production.
