Photo: Collected
An 80 km (49.7 mi) stretch of road is lined with palm oil plantations in the Khammam district of the southern Indian state of Telangana. Nagarjuna is among several farmers here who have planted oil palm saplings on their land this season.
The 50-year-old suffered heavy losses from paddy cultivation on his four-acre (1.4-hectare) farm last year. He hopes that oil palm will help him return to profit. He said at least 50 farmers in his village had recently made the same switch.
They are part of a growing number of farmers joining the state's ambitious plans to become India's palm oil hub. Since 2014, the land under palm oil cultivation here has increased from 34,000 acres to 72,000 acres in 2022.
The farmers are inspired by the huge profits made by plantation owners like Narayana Rao. Mr. Rao, who is from the neighboring Andhra Pradesh state, began cultivating oil palm eight years ago on his 30-acre (12.14-hectare) field in Khammam and says he has made a profit of more than 4m rupees ($48,705; £43,802).
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