Help the ailing coconut community

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Follow us:WhatsappFacebookTwitterTelegram.cls-1{fill:#4d4d4d;}.cls-2{fill:#fff;}Google NewsOver half a crore coconut farmers are struggling in this land of coconut. They do not get good price for coconut, there are no climbers and no buyers. Heaps of row coconut lie in front of rural farmers’ houses waiting for buyers. Millers don’t buy copra in bulk or raw coconut because of declining coconut oil prices. The Kerafed’s copra procurement is a comedy show. Kerala farmers do not make copra. So whose copra they are procuring? The cunning middlemen buy copra from Tamil Nadu and make huge profit. The State Government and Kerafed should buy raw coconuts from farmers. The price of a raw coconut is Rs 15 and more in towns. The farmer gets a pittance of Rs 3.50 per nut. The farmers should get at least Rs 10 per nut. At the recent world coconut congress called ‘Cocotech @ Cochin,’ delegates from Philippines and Sri Lanka were surprised to see heaps of coconuts and the worried coconut farmers in the suburbs of Kochi during their field trips.The Philippines delegates asked, ‘What has happened to the Kerafed like our Cocofed in Philippines.’ They save the coconut community by buying coconuts and diversification by which the farmers get a fair price Sri Lanka was readyto transfer methodologies to diversify Kerala’s ailing coconut industry. Unfortunately no minister or official from Kerala has visited Lanka for this purpose. During the open forum a consensus was reached that the Indian coconut industry, especially in Kerala, would come out with a set of proposals to salvage the coconut industry. Kerala is the only coconut growing state where the sole livelihood of the farmers is coconut. Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra do not have this problem. Because they have other agricultural incomes, no land ceiling and unbearable farm wages. The coconut growing countries like western Samova and Fiji pay half the farm wages to the farmers to help them carry on with farming. Here farmers are struggling to pay the wages. This has resulted in complete neglect of coconut farming in Kerala.(The views in the article are the writer’s own).first published:August 13, 2012, 10:44 ISTlast updated:August 13, 2012, 10:44 IST
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Over half a crore coconut farmers are struggling in this land of coconut. They do not get good price for coconut, there are no climbers and no buyers.

Heaps of row coconut lie in front of rural farmers’ houses waiting for buyers. Millers don’t buy copra in bulk or raw coconut because of declining coconut oil prices. The Kerafed’s copra procurement is a comedy show. Kerala farmers do not make copra. So whose copra they are procuring? The cunning middlemen buy copra from Tamil Nadu and make huge profit.

The State Government and Kerafed should buy raw coconuts from farmers. The price of a raw coconut is Rs 15 and more in towns. The farmer gets a pittance of Rs 3.50 per nut. The farmers should get at least Rs 10 per nut.

At the recent world coconut congress called ‘Cocotech @ Cochin,’ delegates from Philippines and Sri Lanka were surprised to see heaps of coconuts and the worried coconut farmers in the suburbs of Kochi during their field trips.

The Philippines delegates asked, ‘What has happened to the Kerafed like our Cocofed in Philippines.’ They save the coconut community by buying coconuts and diversification by which the farmers get a fair price Sri Lanka was ready

to transfer methodologies to diversify Kerala’s ailing coconut industry. Unfortunately no minister or official from Kerala has visited Lanka for this purpose.

During the open forum a consensus was reached that the Indian coconut industry, especially in Kerala, would come out with a set of proposals to salvage the coconut industry.

Kerala is the only coconut growing state where the sole livelihood of the farmers is coconut. Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra do not have this problem. Because they have other agricultural incomes, no land ceiling and unbearable farm wages. The coconut growing countries like western Samova and Fiji pay half the farm wages to the farmers to help them carry on with farming. Here farmers are struggling to pay the wages. This has resulted in complete neglect of coconut farming in Kerala.

(The views in the article are the writer’s own).