Meeting National Goals at the Expense of Local Communities?

Newsreel Asia Insight #19
Oct. 20, 2023

The Union government plans to expand palm oil plantations into six northeastern states, covering an area that exceeds the size of the entire state of Sikkim, Hindustan Times reported. This move comes despite international and local evidence cautioning that such expansion could have devastating impacts on farmers, cultural heritage and biodiversity.

The government’s Mational Mission on Edible Oils, specifically palm oil, was launched in the fiscal year 2021-22 to reduce dependency on imported edible oils by covering 840,344 hectares in the northeastern states – more than half a million full-size football fields – with palm oil plantations.

The plantation areas include Arunachal Pradesh with 133,811 hectares, Assam with 375,428 hectares, and four other states contributing the remaining land, according to Northeast Media Hub, which said special provisions have been made to attract investment for these plantations.

Three major companies – Patanjali Foods Pvt Ltd, Godrej Agrovet Ltd and 3F Oil Palm – are involved in this endeavour, the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare revealed in response to an RTI application, as reported by the Times.

While the cultivation may attract investment, create employment and offer some economic advantages to the region, its detrimental impacts could significantly outweigh its benefits.

Palm oil farming transfers land ownership from community members to private entities, the Frontline magazine noted in June, pointing out that this shift undermines the authority of gram panchayats and other local community councils, taking away their ability to manage their lands.

In Mizoram, where palm cultivation has been going on since 2004, had left farmers impoverished, forcing many to sell their land, the magazine said, explaining that plantations had stripped the soil of its fertility and water resources. There’s a complete lack of infrastructure for transportation and milling, causing harvested crops to go to waste, is said, adding that farmers hadn’t seen any financial gains, and attempts to switch to alternative crops had been unsuccessful due to the soil’s poor condition.

The Frontline also noted that the three companies engaged in oil palm plantations in Mizoram—Godrej, 3F and Patanjali—remained unaccountable for these failures.

However, Sougata Niyogi, CEO of Oil Palm Plantation Business at Godrej, claimed that the farmers and the company share responsibilities as per a Memorandum of Understanding. He was quoted as saying that farmers will receive around 170,000 rupees per hectare as incentives for the initial non-productive years. That amounts to roughly 14,000 rupees per month for a parcel of land that is significantly larger than a standard international football field.

Biodiversity and cultural heritage of northeast India is also a major concern.

Jagdish Krishnaswamy, dean of School of Environment and Sustainability at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, was quoted as saying by the Times that he hopes palm oil cultivation will not replace biodiversity-rich forested sites.

K. Suresh, director of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research - Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research, was quoted as saying that palm oil plantations could serve as net accumulators of carbon. However, plantations often follow forest fires for land clearance.

Further, studies have shown oil palm plantations’ adverse effects on biodiversity.

Data from a 2016 study published in Ornithological Applications journal showed that oil palm plantations in Mizoram had the lowest forest bird species richness, as low as 10 species.

A contrasting farming method, jhum cultivation, was found to have 304% higher bird abundance than oil palm plantations. Jhum cultivation is a traditional farming method that entails clearing land of trees and vegetation, setting it ablaze, and then farming it for a specified duration. This method cannot be used for palm plantation.

Palm oil plantations have been detrimental to biodiversity in various countries, especially in Southeast Asia, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature. 

The transformation of tropical forests into vast oil palm plantations drastically affects numerous plant and animal species, WWF says. Human-wildlife conflict escalates as animals are confined to shrinking natural habitats. Even protected areas suffer; for example, 43% of Tesso Nilo National Park in Sumatra, Indonesia, designed to protect the endangered Sumatran Tiger, is now infiltrated by illegal palm oil cultivation.

Further, vegetation is commonly burned to clear land for plantations, releasing smoke and carbon dioxide. This not only pollutes the air but also exacerbates climate change, WWF points out. Fires in peat areas are particularly hard to control, and the resultant smoke poses health risks across Southeast Asia.

Palm oil mills produce large amounts of effluent, leading to freshwater pollution that harms both biodiversity and human communities downstream, WWF warns, adding that although oil palm plantations are not significant users of pesticides and fertilizers, their indiscriminate use contaminates both surface and groundwater.

It further states that soil erosion occurs during forest clearing and can also result from poor plantation layouts. The problem is particularly acute on steep slopes. Erosion can cause flooding and sediment accumulation in rivers, necessitating increased use of fertilisers and infrastructure repair.

Citing the example of Indonesia, WWF says forest fires for land clearance further release carbon dioxide, contributing to climate change. The archipelago’s high rate of deforestation makes it the third-largest global emitter of greenhouse gases.

Northeast India’s farmers and political leaders are not all in favour of the expansion.

James K. Sangma, a National People’s Party leader in Meghalaya state, was quoted as saying that they have decided against palm oil plantations, citing their impact on biodiversity and opposition by farmers.

The Central government’s initiative might contribute to the national objective of reducing reliance on imported edible oils, but this comes at a price that both the environment and residents of the northeast region will have to bear.