The Hindu Business Line : Coconut palm's untapped wealth in Kerala

KERALA hails coconut as the `tree of heaven' but so far it has failed to exploit its most potential produce `sweet toddy' or `neera' capable of fetching great monetary gains to the State.

If just 1 per cent of the palms are subjected to tapping, it would give toddy worth Rs 10,000 crore, according to Mr R. Hali, former Director of Agriculture, Kerala, and a former specialist to M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai.

India is one of the largest producers of coconut in the world.

It is not difficult to identify 15-20 million trees ideal for sweet toddy production from Kerala where total population exceeds 200 million trees.

The country has over 400 million palms now.

About 10 million palms are enough to give toddy worth Rs 25,000 crore annually.

The coconut production from the existing 1.9 million hectares is only 1,259 crore worth about Rs 6,200 crore, Mr Hali told Business Line.

The huge employment potential it offers in production, processing and marketing sectors will be highly lucrative apart from the huge revenue the Government could generate at different levels towards taxes.

The international coconut summit held at Kochi has recommended the Government to take immediate steps to declare sweet toddy as a soft drink.

The M.S. Swaminathan Commission constituted by the State Government also has put up similar proposal. If the sweet toddy production is transformed in to a gigantic health drink industry it will emerge as the largest in the processed food sector with a huge turn over and excellent export prospects, Mr Hali claimed.

Sweet toddy production in Indonesia is stated to be so high that annually they are producing over 1 million tonnes of coconut sugar.

It is exported to Malaysia and West Asia and used as a health food. Exclusive gardens are maintained for sweet toddy production in Thailand. Lack of proper technology to preserve the sweet toddy without fermentation is the main obstacle for the promotion of sweet toddy production.

It is also a fact that the A.P. Udayabhanu Commission constituted by the Stateto study the prohibition of liquor sales in the State had also recommended the production and consumption of sweet toddy years ago.

More Stories on : Coconut & Copra | Beverages | Kerala

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