KARACHI, June 5: Pakistan can save Rs35 billion per annum through good management in the cultivation of oilpalm in the coastal zones of Sindh, including those of Karachi, and Balochistan, a study shows. These coastal zones, stretched over 880 kilometres, with temperatures ranging between 24 and 35 degree centigrade are best suited for oilpalm and coconut plantation, but due attention is not been paid to these natural resources.

Oilpalm, one of the basic edible oil, costs the country around Rs50 billion per annum on account of imports.

According to sources, Pakistan possesses all the essentials required to go for a massive plantation of oilpalm.

Director-General of the Coastal Development Authority (CDA) Munawwar Opel says that an average oil yield from oilpalm on one acre is two tonnes annually and the oil price per ton is about Rs35,000. As such, the income from per acre yield comes to Rs70,000 as against the production cost of about Rs10,500 per acre.

He calculates the net return per acre from an eight-year plantation as Rs59,500 annually per acre which could sustain up to 35-40 years.

Sources suggest that bringing 500,000 acres of land under cultivation for oilpalm to produce the desired results. They identify the suitable lands as 300,000 acres in the coastal areas of Sindh in the districts of Karachi, Thatta, Badin, Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas and Sanghar (tehsils of Tando Adam and Shahdadpur) and 200,000 acres in Balochistan’s tehsils/districts of Hub, Sonmiani, Weendar, Pasni and Gwadar.

Some farms of Forest Department Sindh in coastal areas of Thatta and Badin districts, measuring 64,943 acres, can also be utilized for oilpalm plantation plus 200,000 acres of sugarcane field in Sindh.

The sources are of the view that proper planning and good management would earn the country Rs35 billion annually after a maturity period of 10 years. A comprehensive action plan would have to be chalked out, they say.

Simultaneously with the plantation process, which will take around seven/eight years, income can be generated through cultivation of banana, papaya, fodder and vegetables on the same lands using the rows between the oilplam plants.

The cost of the oilpalm plantation and intercropping, worked out for every 25 acres of cultivated land, comes to Rs262,500 and Rs260,000 respectively as against the income of Rs1.4875 million and Rs595,000 respectively. Going for rice in the intercropping process is not advisable, the sources say.

The study shows that the potential areas suitable for oilpalm plantation are Matli, Tando Mohammad Khan, Nindo Shah, Tando Bago, Kunri, Umer Kot, Digri, Jhudo, Jamesabad, Tando Allahyar, Tandojam, Mirpurkhas, Khipro, Hala, Talhar, Keti Bandar, Ghora Bari, Shah Bandar, Pir Putho, Chauhar Jamali, Thatta, Ghulamullah, etc.

According to the study, the likely socio-economic benefits are self-sufficiency in edible oils (or, at least, a major step towards that direction), foreign exchange saving, encouragement of industrialization, increased per-acre income of growers, utilization of rural manpower round-the-year, improvement of natural environment, substitution of sugarcane, a 10-time higher yield than most other oil crops, and a higher return from the dual cultivation.

The sources also point out that oilpalm plantation is most consumer- and environmental-friendly and would definitely help alleviate poverty in the identified areas in particular, and in the country in general.