New Delhi, Oct. 26 -- For Kishor Yelati, a farmer from Chintampalle village in Andhra Pradesh's Eluru district, choosing oil palm was not an easy decision. When he decided to plant the crop on roughly 4.8 hectares of ancestral land, doubts were aplenty. But the prospect of relatively stable returns, along with India's growing dependence on imported edible oils, persuaded him to take the plunge.

Oil palm, however, has a long gestation period-about four years. To keep his farm financially viable during this period, Yelati turned to intercropping. He grew maize during the first two years and groundnut in the third. With the palms now yielding, he grows cocoa alongside oil palm and earns about Rs.1.2-1.7 lakh per hectare, excluding expenses....