Kochi: Kerala agriculture department is set to expand coconut cultivation to 40,000 hectares of land in the next five years by spending over Rs 100cr. Govt will announce the integrated five-year programme at a seminar on World Coconut Day on Sept 2 in Thiruvananthapuram.
We are preparing a project report on it by including marketing of the products as well,” said the official. “The park will serve as a larger company of farmers of coconut cultivation.
Market intelligence and price forecasting schemes need to be carried out for coconut and coconut products so that they would help the farmers to tide over the crisis, it had said. It noted that the value addition of coconut is still underdeveloped and awareness of this is also limited. It found awareness of the value-added products from coconut is very low in Kerala. The study had recommended policy considerations to overcome the situations by adopting the promotion of mechanisation in the coconut sector. You Can Also Check: Gold Rate in Kochi | Silver Rate in Kochi | Bank Holidays in Kochi | Public Holidays in Kochi
A study conducted by the agricultural university in 2022 found that the decline in the area of cultivation in the state was due to the increasing cost of cultivation, price volatility and instability in exports. The major reason behind is the recent trade agreements by India with other major coconut-producing countries.