Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology (IIFPT) launched Mission Coconut Programme, coinciding with the World Coconut Day on Saturday. The activities on value addition for coconut kicked off in right earnest after Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimarat Kaur Badal flagged off the mission.
This is yet another initiative from the country’s premier food processing technology dissemination institution after the remarkable success of its earlier Mission Onion Programme. The Mission Coconut Programme would run for a year, according to IIFPT Director C. Anandharamakrishnan.
The programme would combat post harvest technological problems in the spheres of handling and value addition. Coconut is a major horticulture crop in Thanjavur district and is cultivated in about 35,000 hectare.
About 90% of the harvested nuts are transported to Erode and Tirupur for processing even as growers for most part of the year fail to cash in on the demand.
The mission would target coconut potential areas such as Thanjavur and Pollachi regions where the Institute plans to create post-harvest handling and value addition dissemination to increase the profitability for growers there.
On farm mechanisation for removal of shell and testa, producing value-added products such as tender coconut water powder, enriched coconut milk, coconut nutri chips and neera would be some of the specialities of the Mission, Dr. Anandharamakrishnan says.
The mission also aims to create an effective supply and value chain by integrating coconut based common value addition for the use of small and marginal farmers registered with the farmers’ producers companies which is on the anvil.
A farmers’ meet was organised at Tiruchitrambalam village in Thanjavur district on Saturday in which members of the Peravurani Coconut Agro Producers Company, officials from the Department of Agri Business and Marketing and other stakeholders discussed the needs of the growers, problems they face in times of glut and scarcity.
Dr. Anadharamakrishnan promised the coconut growers and officials that the IIFPT would take into consideration all issues being faced by the coconut growers and evolve technological solutions to ensure that the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to double the farmers’ income by 2022 becomes a reality in the case of coconut growers as well.
The encouragement from the State Government for Neera drink would be a big boost to the Mission Coconut Programme as it would seek to extend the shelf life of the mineral-rich natural drink that has a vast scope in the domestic and international market, the IIFPT Director observed.