Expansion of Oil Palm plantations in Northeast India: a disaster in the making

(A Brief for Community Leaders and the Media in Northeast India)

Until a few decades age, India was nearly 100% self-sufficient in edible oils, with a diverse variety of oilseeds that were grown and consumed sustainably in keeping with the ecological and climatic conditions of different regions in the country¹. Today, India is highly reliant on palm oil imports to meet its vegetable oil demands^1. Palm oil is an exceptionally versatile vegetable oil and is used not only in food but also in products ranging from chocolate to shampoo, and also as a biofuel. India is the largest global consumer of palm oil and accounts for over 20% of the palm oil used worldwide². Currently, India imports a massive 99% of its palm oil, mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia². A significant shortfall in palm oil production has prompted the government’s push for vegetable oil security under the banner of the National Mission on Edible Oil–Oil Palm (NMEO-OP). The NMEO-OP aims to place an additional 1.32 million hectares of land under oil palm cultivation in India by 2030³. An area that is larger than the entire state of Tripura.

The priority regions earmarked for oil palm expansion are the Northeast Indian states and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands⁴. Both these regions together encompass three Global Biodiversity Hotspots, host a multitude of species that are globally threatened, range-restricted or endemic, and continue to retain some of the most extensive tracts of forest in India. These forests are crucial for biodiversity, climate resilience and protecting the interests of indigenous cultures, their lifestyles and livelihoods. Because of their ecological and cultural significance, both these regions should be No-Go areas for oil palm cultivation^2,5. In Northeast India, oil palm plantations have already been established in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. In Mizoram, entire districts such as Kolasib and Mamit have been designated for oil palm cultivation⁶.

Mizoram’s experience with oil palm cultivation has been disastrous⁷. Jhum cultivation (or shifting cultivation) landscapes have been classified by the government as “wasteland”⁶ and replaced with oil palm plantations despite indigenous communities relying on them for food and non-food produce (timber, bamboo, medicinal plants). Oil palm plantations have left the soil infertile and alarmingly depleted the water resources⁷. Infrastructure for transportation and milling is non-existent, and the crop is left to rot either on the tree or on the ground after harvest. Farmers have made zero profits from oil palm, and efforts to replace oil palm with other crops have failed because of depleted soil nutrients and decreasing water availability. The three companies involved with oil palm cultivation in Mizoram; Godrej, 3F, and Ruchi Soya (the last now owned by Patanjali), have faced no accountability for the failure of the crop in the state⁷. In Nagaland, farmers are wary of cultivating oil palm because of grossly inadequate water supply, loss of crop to rodents and the lack of buyers for produce, despite government assurances⁸.

No state in Northeast India should opt for oil palm plantations as a source of revenue or horticultural development for the following reasons (as demonstrated by the Mizoram experience⁷):

• • • • Shifts in land tenure systems. Oil palm cultivation tends to shift land tenure from community-owned to privately held. The power of Gram Panchayats and other village-level and community-based councils to manage their own lands will pass to companies. In effect, land will become “locked” under oil palm, and communities will then have no say in land management. This is a uniquely Northeast Indian problem, where due to special constitutional protections under the 6^th Schedule or Article 371 series, land ownership and management are primarily in the hands of the community, with the strength of protective provisions varying in different states. This is unlike the rest of India where land is owned privately or by the government. Land tenure moving into private hands has already happened in Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and in a few peninsular Indian states, where tribal communities have lost their lands, and people have no choice but to work as labourers on oil palm plantations in their own land^9,10,11.
      • Northeast India is climatically unsuited for oil palm cultivation. Maps of areas suitable for cultivating oil palm in India published by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) show that over 90% of Northeast India is simply unsuitable for oil palm cultivation (except southern areas of Tripura and Mizoram)1. The Northeast’s hilly terrain means that oil palm plantations in this region will invariably fail^7,8.
      • Northeast India lacks the infrastructure to grow and process oil palm. Even if Northeast India was climatically suited to oil palm cultivation, there would still be serious concerns:
        (i) Irrigation. Each oil palm plant requires 250-300 litres of water per day^2,11. Northeast India is monsoonal, with most rainfall in only four months. Where will the water that is needed to cultivate oil palm come from?
        (ii) Transportation and milling. Once harvested, the fresh fruit bunches of the oil palm have to be processed within 48 hours, or the oil milled from the fruit is not fit for human consumption. This requires efficient transportation facilities to oil palm mills, both of which currently do not exist in the region⁷.
      • Forest and biodiversity loss. In most Northeastern states, oil palm plantations will replace natural or semi-natural (e.g., jhum) landscapes. There remains the possibility that state governments (like in Mizoram) will declare highly productive jhum landscapes as “wasteland” to encourage conversion to oil palm^6,8. The conversion of natural/semi-natural habitats to monoculture plantations will have worrying long-term consequences to the environment as well as the lives of the local communities:

    (i) The replacement of landscapes with diverse benefits (medicinal plants, timber, bamboo and non-timber forest products, diversity of food crops) into labour-intensive monoculture cash cropping systems will negatively impact food security¹⁰.

(ii) Loss of forests. Northeast India is set to be one of the worst-hit regions in the world by climate change and climate-driven extreme events such as massive floods and severe droughts⁸. Forests are an important buffer against such events, especially in the context of watershed services and water security².

• Environmental sustainability issues. Oil palm cultivation is very chemical intensive, requiring the application of large quantities of fertilizers and pesticides. This leaves soil and freshwater health severely compromised^7,10,11, prevents the cultivation of other crops in the vicinity of oil palm plantations, and makes the conversion of oil palm back to legacy crops exceptionally difficult⁷.

As with Mizoram⁷ and some of the peninsular states¹¹, it is improbable that farmers and indigenous communities are informed of the risks and potentially disastrous consequences of cultivating oil palm. The government and oil palm companies (such as Patanjali) will, in all likelihood, emphasise subsidies provided to grow oil palm (which are considerable) and the potential short-term gains. The economic advantages of oil palm cultivation are publicised without warnings about changes in land tenure, the environmental impacts, labour costs, the use of chemicals and the depletion of water resources, and the fact that oil palm is simply unsuited to Northeast India’s terrain, climate, ecology, available infrastructure, and the culture of the region. Mizoram’s disastrous entanglement with oil palm cultivation should serve as a cautionary tale for other Indian states especially in the Northeast⁷.

Author’s Disclosure Statement: Rupa Chinai is an independent journalist and author, and Dr. Ravi Chellam is a wildlife biologist and conservation scientist. Rupa Chinai submitted this piece to the ICNA.

Featured Image: An oil palm plantation in Mizoram. Photo: TR Shankar Raman/Wikimedia Commons

The author’s views are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of nagaaffairs.org

Further reading:
Expanding oil palm plantations in the Northeast could exact a long-term cost
No country for women: The dark side of palm oil production in Mizoram
How palm oil from Malaysia fired the Patel agitation in Gujarat
Oil palm push in the northeast may impact biodiversity, water table, say experts
Cabinet approves measures to increase oil palm area, production in India
Oil palm in India’s northeast: economy versus ecology
India’s Push for Oil Palm Cultivation Despite Environmental And Economic Concerns
How ‘Dirty’ is India’s Palm Oil and What Should We Do About It?

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