Coconut farmers in Tiruppur district have extended their support to the indefinite fast planned by organisations espousing the cause of agricultural community at New Delhi from December 13.
The Indiya Thennai Vivasayigal Kootamaippu, Tamizhaga Vivasayigal Padukappu Sangam, Tamilnadu Cauvery Uzhavargal Padukappu Sangam and Tamil Nadu Vivasaya Sangangalin Kootu Iyakkam have announced the protest, apprehending a steep fall in the procurement price, due to the reported move by NAFED (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd.) to auction its huge stock of copra to commercial entities.
Representatives of farmer welfare organisations flagged the fear of the commercial entities forming a cartel to procure copra for just ₹65 per kg. This will lead to a cascading effect on the existing procurement price, a representative of one of the farmers’ associations lamented
Instead, the NAFED should carry out sale of coconut oil at subsidised rates as a replacement for palm oil, using the Bharath brand as was being done for atta, dal and onion, the farmers emphasise, pointing out that the NAFED had procured up to one lakh metric tonnes of copra from Tamil Nadu alone.
The minimum support price of fair average quality of milling copra and ball copra per quintal had been fixed at ₹ 10,860 and ₹11,750 for the 2023 season. However, only 10 percent of copra is procured and the rest is sold in the open market.
On its part, the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) has recommended that the Central Government must maintain import duty structure on edible oils, especially palm oil and its fractions, at appropriate level linked to world prices, and to promote exports of virgin oil and value-added products, citing the demand in developed countries.
The CACP, in its non-price recommendations made in its report on price policy for copra for 2023 season, has called upon State governments to foster entrepreneurship among the farmers by setting up coconut based industrial parks in partnership with research institutions, for organised processing of value-added products such as tender nut, coconut water, coconut wood, toddy, neera, gur, sugar, vinegar, coconut boli, coconut honey and coconut sauce. The Commission further recommends that India should concentrate on production of value-added products like desiccated coconut, coconut milk/ cream, long shelf-life coconut gratings, coconut sugar/jaggery, coconut vinegar, which are likely to witness increase in demand in domestic and international markets in the coming years.