With World Coconut Day being celebrated Sunday,the production area and productivity of the nut has seen a decline in Kerala,the land of coconuts. But the government is now trying to reverse the trend.
According to Kerala State Planning Board figures, the areaunder coconut cultivation fell from 8,98,000 hectares in 2005-06 to 7,70,000hectares in 2010-2011.
Production too dipped from 6,326 to 5,287 million nuts andproductivity from 7,046 to 6,862 nuts per hectare during the same period.
This has come at a time when coconut production and productivityhave gone up in neighbouring Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
Speaking to IANS, Kerala's Agricultural Minister K.P.Mohanan said that in the past one year, a record number of fresh saplings hadbeen provided to farmers and the results would be seen in three years' timewhen the trees start giving coconuts.
"One problem is that farmers show a negative attitudetowards coconut when prices drop. But they take a different position whenrubber prices change. They take more care of rubber trees than other crops,"he said.
To mark the World Coconut Day, the minister launched Neera,a non-alcoholic health drink made from coconut water, at the KeralaAgricultural University in Thrissur Sunday.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy too has given nod to an expertcommittee for working towards setting up four coconut bio-parks.
Three coconut parks in the government sector and one in theprivate sector would come up in a few months, Mohanan said.
He said the government would provide all necessaryinfrastructure to companies to produce new products from coconuts.
The Coconut Development Board too plans to help farmers bysetting up 5,000 tender coconut parlours across the country.
Tender coconuts will be directly supplied to the parlours byCoconut Producers' Society comprising of 40-100 coconut farmers from each area.
Gijo Joseph, the chief executive officer of Kochi Infopark,said a tender coconut sales outlet had opened at the Infopark a few months backand was doing good business.
"Daily, around 400 tender coconuts are being sold.Soon, we will start another outlet in the IT park in Koratty. There are plansto serve snowballs too," Joseph said.
Snowballs are the next stage of tender coconuts, where thekernel is scooped out.
Green signal has also been given to procuring 200 coconutdriers for drying freshly-cut ripe nuts to make copra which are crushed toproduce oil.
The driers will be offered at 50 percent subsidy.
One hundred such driers will be given to the agriculturaldepartment and 100 to the cooperation departments which will pass them tocooperative societies interested in procuring ripe coconuts directly fromfarmers.