Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan will declare 2010 as the year of coir on Wednesday as part of the nationwide campaign to promote coir and coir products.
Minister for Cooperation and Coir G. Sudhakaran said that declaration of the year was delayed pending clearance from the Centre. The government would organise interior designers' meets in different cities of the country and take up special campaign to promote use of geotextiles.
The Minister said that the government proposed to increase procurement of husk and production of geotextiles. About 5,000 newly-developed defibring mills would be set up in six months. Local level consortia were being formed to buy coconuts from farmers and make the husk available to defibring units.
The Coir Department proposed to market 50 lakh square metres of geotextiles this year. A separate marketing company would be formed to market coir and coir products throughout the country. An international coir expo would be organised in Alappuzha in November.
Projects
Mr. Sudharakan announced that a factory for making coir composite boards under the Form Mattings and a factory for making blended yarn and power looms under the Coir Corporation would be set up by December. Various projects had been sanctioned for modernisation of the coir sector with Central assistance.
Wage hike
He also said that the government proposed to increase the wage of coir workers to Rs.150 a day. About one lakh coir workers in the cooperative sector would benefit. The apex cooperative federation (Coirfed) would increase the procurement price to enable the cooperatives to increase wages.
