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The Coconut Development Board has entrusted a project with SCMS Biotech Research Institute to develop a low-fat cream from tender coconut.
T.K. Jose, chairman, Coconut Development Board, expressed the hope that the product will be a boon to coconut growers.
Jose was speaking at the three-day leadership training conducted at SCMS Business School for a group of representatives of Coconut Producers Societies in Alappuzha district.
Coconut revival
The board’s dream project to revive coconut cultivation in Kerala and guaranteeing a bright future for the growers was also launched at the leadership camp.
The project envisaged by the board is to produce a variety of value-added products and export them under the auspices of the federation of CPS, he said.
A low-fat cream from the tender coconut, virgin coconut oil with medicinal properties, coconut milk powder, sugar from Neera that can be used even by diabetic patients, activated carbon from coconut shell are some of the value-added products proposed by the board. These products will be much more profitable to the growers, he added.
Quality seedlings
Seeking continued cooperation from SCMS in fulfilling his dream project, the chairman assured the growers that steps would be taken to make available sufficient number of quality seedlings to them in time.
The leadership training camp, he said, was conducted as an initial step to inculcate managerial and leadership skills among the growers with a view to preparing them for higher responsibilities. The agriculture sector would also require better managerial skills if it has to progress in the modern globalised world, he added.
Value-additon
He said that the coconut growers in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Philippines are benefited from value-addition when the coconut oil prices are not very high.
It is a model that could be replicated to save the growers here. If the growers take the initiative to form a strong federation to revive coconut cultivation, the board will extend all support to them, he added.
> sajeevkumar.v@thehindu.co.in
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