The Kerala Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (Milma), the apex cooperative for milk procurements and sales, has in principle approved a plan to procure tapioca to be added as part of cattle feed being produced in the State.
Milma sources said the federation was open to the idea of using tapioca in cattle feed production, provided tapioca was supplied in dried form. If the produce was dried and supplied, it could be used as part of cattle feed, said Milma Chairman P.A. Balan on Monday.
He said tapioca farmers were in dire straits at present as they were unable to sell their produce for reasonable rates. Milma was ready to come to their help under such circumstances, he said.
There is a glut-like situation in the State with tapioca farmers unable to sell their produce. Agriculture Department sources said they were getting calls from farmers across the State for procurement of tapioca through a scheme being introduced by the Horticultural Products Development Corporation. The procurement scheme was introduced in the wake of COVID-19 lockdown to help farmers who were unable to sell their produce.
Farmers in Ernakulam, Pathanamthitta, Idukki, Kottayam, and Thrissur have been among those seeking help to sell the harvest even as a bout of heavy rain last week saw vast areas of tapioca cultivation being flooded.
In Ernakulam, more than a hundred acres of tapioca cultivation has been flooded near Muvattupuzha. The owner of a farm, P.P. Eldho, said he had asked people who wanted the produce to harvest it and supply it to those in need. The harvested tapioca is now being supplied free of cost to community kitchens and charitable institutions.
An initiative by the Welfare Services, the charity arm of the Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese, has seen 20 tonnes of tapioca, banana and other produce being supplied free of cost to relief camps and to families in need. A spokesman for the society said that 20 tonnes of farm produce were distributed last week. The tapioca and other products were procured from different centres.
