Itanagar: Arunachal Pradesh Agriculture Minister Tage Taki along with Acharya Balkrishna on Wednesday laid the foundation stone of Patanjali Oil Palm Processing Unit at Niglok in East Siang district in a grand ceremony attended by a huge crowd including the elected representatives of the central Arunachal district.
Touted to be one of the largest private investments in the state, the project is being developed by Patanjali Foods Limited (formerly, Ruchi Soya Industries Limited) towards making the country self-reliant in the field of edible oil.
Speaking on the occasion, the Agriculture Minister congratulated the people of the region who are set to get the state’s first state-of-the-art integrated oil palm factory at the Niglok Industrial Growth Centre (IGC) near Pasighat.
Acharya Balkrishna terming the occasion as ‘historic’ for the state and the nation as a whole, said that Patanjali Foods Limited has signed an MoU with APIDFC Ltd, a State Govt undertaking under the Industries Department, for setting up of Oil Palm Processing Unit at the Niglok IGC.
“All necessary approvals and statutory clearances pertaining to land were also obtained and the factory is set to be developed. The company is the first in the state to import high quality hybrid variety seed sprouts from selected identified countries, for the benefit of the farmers,” he informed.
He said, the project would help generate employment in the agro-food processing sector, while adding that such initiatives will give impetus to the National Mission on Edible Oils – Oil Palm
(NMEO-OP) to make India self-reliant in edible oil and also in doubling farmers’ income. Balkrishna also advocated for making Arunachal as the first organic farming state in the country.
Among others, Advisor to Agriculture Minister, Gabriel D Wangsu, MLAs Ninong Ering, Kaling Moyong and Lombo Tayeng, Joint Secretary, Dept of Agriculture & FW, Govt of India, Shubha
Thakur, State’s Agriculture Secretary Bidol Tayeng, Industries Secretary Hage Tari, APIDFCL Chairman Wanglong Rajkumar, ICAR-IIOPR Director Ravi Kumar Mathur, East Siang DC Tayi
Taggu and SP Sumit Kumar Jha were present on the occasion.
