Kochi : 02 September 2024

World Coconut Day Celebrations were organized by Coconut Development Board  at Ernakulam Town Hall today and State Minister for Law, Industries and Coir Shri.P. Rajeev inaugurated the programme . In his inaugural address, Shri.P. Rajeev Called for concerted efforts towards the development of diversified value added products from coconut along with the traditional products .

The Minister added that Kerala is a major producer of coconut and its products, predominantly coconut oil. There is a surge of many innovative products from coconut like coconut chips, nata-de-coco etc which offer huge potential in the domestic and global markets. The Minister urged that there is a need to promote small scale industry for the production of such diversified products. Convergence of the schemes of the Government of Kerala and Coconut Development Board will help in extending quality support to entrepreneurs in the coconut sector, he said. The Board, Kerala Agricultural University and the State Agriculture Department should work towards, developing suitable technology for the management of the major pests and diseases in coconut, the Minister told.

 Enakulam MLA , Shri. T.J. Vinod stressed on the need to address the issues faced by the farmers in the coconut sector. Tailor-made programmes for the sustained development of the coconut sector need to be implemented. Programmes should be organized at regular intervals which will form the forum for attracting more entrepreneurs into coconut processing and value addition, he said.

Minister Shri. P.Rajeev released Kera Bharathi, the in-house hindi journal of the Board and a brochure on the schemes of the Board. The Minister also inaugurated the exhibition organised alongside the event. Shri. Hanumanthe Gowda, Chief Coconut Development Officer, CDB welcomed the gathering and Smt. Deepthi Nair S, Director, CDB proposed the vote of thanks

More than 500 progressive farmers from the major South Indian states, entrepreneurs, processors, officials from the State Department of Agriculture and Coconut Development Board, etc attended the programme. Technical sessions on coconut cultivation and plant protection, value addition, market promotion and export etc were also held. 

(Release ID: 2050910)