An 80km (49.7mile) road in Khammam district of the southern Indian state of Telangana is dotted with palm oil plantations on both sides. Nagarjuna is among several farmers here who have been planting saplings of the oil palm tree in their fields this season. The 50-year-old had suffered huge losses last year from rice cultivation on his four-acre (1.4-hectare) farm. He hopes that oil palm will help him return to profit. He says at least 50 other farmers in his village have made the same switch recently. They are part of a growing number of farmers who are joining the state's ambitious plan to become India's palm oil hub. Since 2014, the land under palm oil cultivation here has grown 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 neighbouring 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). "The lifespan of an oil palm crop is roughly 30 years. I am 72. I don't think I'll uproot these plants in my lifetime," he says. The oil palm is considered a "wonder crop" and is used in nearly every product of daily use - from food items like chocolates, ice-cream, bread and butter to cosmetics. It is also used as a biofuel component in diesel and petrol and has a variety of industrial applications. In India, it accounts for 60% of the cooking oil market. The country produces just 2.7% of its needs, less than 300,000 metric tons of palm oil, and .imports 90% of its requirement - about 10 million metric tons - from Indonesia and Malaysia. The Telangana government under Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has been promoting the crop by offering generous subsidies to farmers - the state has allocated 10bn rupees this year alone to encourage its cultivation. The state plans to grow the area under oil palm cultivation by another two million acres and the number of farmers from 6,500 to 35,000 in the next four years. Director of state's horticulture department Venkat Reddy said earlier this year that Telangana would then become "the fifth largest oil palm cultivator [in the world]". "Our aim is to be the state that can supply enough palm oil so that imports from Malaysia and Indonesia are reduced by 30-40%." Analysts say this could benefit millions of households and also reduce the country's dependence on oil imports to meet domestic requirements. But environmental experts are sceptical. The crop is considered a major driver of deforestation. Globally, almost all oil palm is grown on lands that were once biodiverse tropical forests, studies have shown.