Vice-Chancellor of the Sri Konda Laxman Telangana State Horticultural University B. Neeraja Prabhakar has been nominated chairperson of the Research Advisory Committee (RAC) of ICAR-Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research (IIOPR) at Pedavegi in Andhra Pradesh.
According to university officials, Ms.Prabhakar has been made the RAC chairperson with retrospective effect from June 13 and she will be heading the 10-member committee for a period of three years.
ICAR-Indian Institute of Oil Palm Research at Pedavegi is the only premier institute in the country conducting research in oil palm and developing technologies related to oil palm that are adoptable in all oil palm-growing States. The RAC will advise the IIOPR in terms of guiding the research in areas of problems faced by oil palm farmers in the country.
Ms.Prabhakar is also a member of Telangana Oil Palm Advisory Committee which advises the State government on extension of the area under oil palm cultivation, problems related to the cultivation of oil palm as also those faced by the oil palm processing industry.
She stated that Telangana has plans to address the edible oil shortage in the country at least to some extent by expanding the oil palm cultivation to 20 lakh acres by achieving at least 10 lakh acre-mark over the next four years. Oil recovery rate from the oil palm bunches produced in Telangana is also the highest in the country, she noted.
