The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) will provide aid to Myanmar for its extended oil palm cultivation, the official newspaper New Light of Myanmar reported Wednesday.

The aid was rendered according to an agreement signed in Yangon Tuesday between the Myanmar Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation and the FAO on improving oil palm research, development and production in the country.

Since 1988, Growing oil palm has been extended in the country's southern Tanintharyi division. So far, a total of 66,795 hectares in five states and divisions have been put under oil palm, of which 66,034 hectares or 98.8 percent are in the Tanintharyi division, a prospective oil bowl in Myanmar, the report said.

Myanmar is implementing a project, which involves 35 local companies, to transform the Tanintharyi division into an edible oil pot next to the Magway division in the central part in a bid to ensure domestic oil sufficiency.

Magway division was once an oil pot at a time when the country has a population of only a few millions. However, as the population increases, palm oil is being imported from abroad to meet demand.

Myanmar's population had hit 55.4 million as of January this year.

Source: Xinhua