KOCHI: Imagine Kerala, but without the emerald green hue of coconut tree fronds and swaying coconut palms dotting the fringes of backwaters.
Feels strange, doesn’t it?
Yet, Kerala, which literally means the ‘Land of Coconuts’ in Malayalam, is seemingly heading towards an existential crisis, as Keralites’ tryst with coconut farming seems to have gone wrong over the past few decades, after coconut cultivation became non-remunerative and coconut plantations dwindled fast. Now, recent reports of nepotism and corruption in coconut procurement through KERAFED under the directorate of agriculture (DoA) and subsequent vigilance report indicting its senior officials have virtually turned out to be a double whammy for coconut farmers, who were already living a hand-to-mouth existence.
The farmers collectives said fraud and misappropriation of public funds by KERAFED had forced millions of coconut farmers to sell their produces at throwaway prices, a move that spells disaster for Kerala’s economy and for the lives of cultivators. Consequently, the coconut farmers were pushed towards crops like banana and rubber, in a bid to escape escalating cultivation costs and shortage of farm hands. K R Madhavan, an 81-year-old veteran coconut cultivator from Thrissur, who had approached the High Court, chief secretary and Agriculture Department secretary seeking a CBI inquiry into misappropriation of funds by KERAFED, told ‘Express’ that there had been only a marginal increase in coconut oil and copra prices between 1991 and 2016, while cost of agriculture inputs and prices of all other essential and necessary commodities skyrocketed.
“If coconut oil was priced Rs 12 per kg in 1980, it now costs around Rs 92, marking a 500 per cent jump. While it may sound too high, it really is meager, when you consider the jump in prices of rice and rubber.
Today, both the commodities cost Rs 32 and Rs 150, respectively, as compared to their respective prices of Rs 1 and Rs 12 in 1980, marking an approximate hike of 3000 and 1100 per cent, respectively,” he said. Madhavan had filed a petition in HC accusing the state government and its agencies like KERAFED and DoA of dumping rotten and useless coconuts, copra and coconut oil from neighbouring states, which depressed coconut prices further in Kerala and enabled industrial giants to forklift best quality of the goods from the state at measly prices.
It also said that the vigilance inquiry and loss recovery were limited in calculating losses.“The vigilance report indicted KERAFED senior officials saying they caused a monetary loss of over Rs 35 crore through procurement of raw coconut, purchase of driers and machinery, setting up of sheds and through transportation. However, the loss sustained by 3.5 million cultivators in the state is beyond the ambit of vigilance and CBI inquiries,” he added.