Bukvannei is a village of 190 houses with a population of 1000. In 2012, Godrej agrovet ltd established an oil palm processing industry and the livelihood of the village has been changed since that year. The entire village was reported to engage in oil palm cultivation after the establishment of the oil palm processing industry. The industry produces crude oils and sends the semi-finished product to be refined in Calcutta.

Pre-Harvest

Half-moon terracing is practised to improve the water percolation in the soil around the palm oil trees. Fertiliser (urea) provided by the department of agriculture is used by most farmers.

Post-harvest

The harvesting of oil palm fruits is a laborious and challenging task. The trees are tall and thorny, the fruits are about 15 kgs in weight which makes the harvest of the fruit difficult. Technological intervention in the harvest of oil palm fruits is the need of the hour as reported by some farmers. Another problem faced by the farmers is the disturbances caused by wild animals in the farm. Wild boar often eaten up the shoots of the smaller trees and cause a significant loss of the oil palm trees.

Problems in oil palm industry

The past few years, the farmers from bukvannei and nearby villages that grow oil palm trees started to clear matured oil palm trees and decided to grow other plantation crops. The reasons for opting for other crops include low selling cost of raw materials, difficulty in harvest, management failure in collection of oil palm fruits and incidences of platform rejection of their harvest. 

Needs:

1. Mechanisation in harvesting of Oilpalm – There is a difficulty in harvesting oil palm fruits as they are very heavy (15-20 kgs). The challenges are added by its thorns, difficulty in climbing the tree and steep topography of the areas where they are grown. The fruits have to be carried from the farms to the nearest market which is often kilometres away. All these problems make the farmers less ambitious and lack motivation in continuing with oilpalm cultivation.
2. Innovation in small scale refining of oils – Due to the difficulties in harvesting and carrying oilpalm fruits from area of cultivation, there is a need for an on-farm machine that can extract crude oils in the area or a facility for refining of oils.