India to invest $1.53 billion to support farmers growing oil palm

In India, the government has decided to invest $1.53 billion to help support farmers transition into oil palm production. Understanding that a long waiting period until the tree matures enough to produce oil seeds is a turn off for many small farmers, the funding will go towards paying those farmers to wait for the returns to start coming in. Nine states have been identified as potential areas to grow oil palm, and already there are concerns in the market that a major push into palm oil will weigh on prices in Indonesia and Malaysia that are already suffering from oversupplies that have led to their own governments boosting biodiesel blending mandates.