Palm oil cultivation bears fruits,rekindles hope for import cut

HYDERABAD: The palm oil cultivation on experimental basis along the coastal belt of Sindh last year have started to bear fruits, rekindling hope for a cut in the import bills of edible oil after the crop’s commercial production. 

At least eight districts in the province received the maiden crops from the palm oil gardens developed as pilot projects by the Pakistan Oilseed Development Board and Sindh Coastal Development Authority.

“Palm oil trees are growing well. They are rich in fruits. Some fresh fruit bunches were harvested, and weighed 15-kilogramme each. Some seeds weighed 20 to 35 grams – a sign of great success,” said Allah Wadhayo Gandhai, who teaches at Sindh Agriculture University, (SAU) Tandojam

Pakistan, the world’s fourth largest buyer of vegetable oils, spent $1.689 billion on the import of 2.719 million tons of palm oil, mainly from Malaysia, during the last fiscal year of 2015/16. 

The country’s annual consumption of edible oil stands at four million tons. Palm oil accounts for 65 percent share in total edible oil consumption. Local production meets only 20 percent of the domestic demand of palm oil.

“Newly emerging trends of palm oil cultivation may meet the local needs of edible oil,” Gandhai said.

Karachi, Badin, Thatta, Sujawal, Tando Muhammad Khan, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas, Tando Allahyar and some parts of Umerkot and Tharparkar are considered as having potential for developing palm oil gardens. 

Sindh government is planning to promote palm oil plantation in these districts to increase the local production of edible oil.

Sindh Coastal Development Authority (SCDA) and SAU have collaborated with Malaysia-based firms to promote palm oil culture and to set up extraction units in the country. The Malaysian firms are sharing production technology. 

Two palm oil gardens: one spreading over 20 acres land at Kathore Forest (near Ghorabari) and the second on 10 acres at Garhko Forest (near Garho) along the Thatta coastal area, are getting matured fruits owing to guidance from Malaysian experts. The two orchards were developed in December 2015.   

Agriculture experts said palm oil cultivation, along the coastal belt, will make the area green and help in minimising environmental pollution. Presently, the coastal areas look deserted and parched. 

Oil palm is the most productive crop with an annual yield of around five tons of crude palm oil/hectare. Palm oil is the second major oil produced in the world after soybean.

In 2015, a team of Malaysian firms visited Sindh to examine some of the fields to discover the potential for palm oil farming. The foreign experts also visited SAU to promote palm oil cultivation in the province. 

They said soil in the coastal belt is climatically favourable for the palm oil production.

Recently, local firms signed memoranda of understanding with SAU to develop palm oil farms.   Ismail Kumbhar, a senior researcher at SAU said the provincial government signed similar agreements with the foreign firms to provide palm oil seeds to the farming community on subsidised rates.

Following the agreements, six-acre piece of land was reserved for the research purposes and to provide guidance to the farmers about the palm oil production. SAU faculty members and students are already conducting researches at the site.

Researchers said the result will come after five years.

Kumbhar said earlier SCDA planned for the crop diversification of palm oil, believing it might turn helpful and provide better products and the status of coastal area people might be socially and economically changed. 

“But it was observed that major issues: marketing, technology transfer and modern practices of palm oil production should have been resolved,” he said.

Kumbhar, who has visited palm oil farms in Malaysia, said Malaysian farmers were getting 16 to 18 bunches from one plant. “But, in Pakistan the yield is low. The reason is that local farmers do not have expertise for crop management,” he added.   The management of production technology from land preparation to harvesting may improve bunch number and size.

Intercropping of palm oil, onion, chilli and fodder crops has also been successful.

The experts said palm oil seedling plants were brought in Pakistan back in 1996. 

The provincial government established the first oil extract mill at Ghulamullah of Thatta district. But due to lack of interest, the mill could not run. Therefore, farmers lost interest in palm oil cultivation. 

Marketing is also a major issue. Farm fruits are perishable and could shortly deteriorate in an open area. Lack of storage and grading and inadequate transportation affect palm oil cultivation in the province.

The experts said Sindh has 1.380 million acres of suitable lands to produce an estimated 2.484 million tons of palm oil. The estimated current value of the production is Rs86.940 billion.

Sindh is blessed with a potentially rich coastal belt. Its seaward coastal line spreads over an area of 338 kilometers, comprising the Indus Delta, one of the largest deltas in the world. 

The experts said the coastal belt has an immense earning potential from integrated agricultural crops, including coconut and oil palm. The utilisation of this blessing will earn the country foreign currencies as well as economically empower the local communities.