One more coconut growers’ federation came into being in Dakshina Kannada recently, taking the number of federations in the district to six.
Akshaya Coconut Growers’ Federation, the second federation in Mangaluru Taluk, was inaugurated at Attavar in the city on Tuesday.
Speaking on the occasion, Sanjeeva Naik, Assistant Director of Horticulture, said that two federations had been registered in Bantwal taluk and one each in Puttur and Belthangady taluks. The process of registering a federation in Sullia was under progress.
Once registered, the federations got eligibility to get financial assistance under various schemes from the Coconut Development Board. The assistance would be for extension of coconut gardens, planting and maintaining a nursery.
A federation should have 800 to 1,000 members with 80,000 to one lakh coconut trees. He said that formation of federations would lead to floating a company of coconut growers.
If a company was to be formed, it required a share capital of Rs. 5 crore and initially 1,000 farmer members were required. The government would provide Rs. 40 lakh as seed money to the company to start activities.
He said that the company could take up manufacturing and marketing of ‘neera’ (a sweet sap drawn from coconut palm inflorescence) which has potential for marketing.