The government is planning a campaign to highlight the health benefits of coconut oil, under plans to revive the domestic coconut industry and expand the market for value-added products.
Addressing the media on the second day of the government-sponsored international workshop and expo on agro-processing and value addition here on Friday, Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunil Kumar said the campaign would seek to dispel the misinformation about coconut oil as bad for health.
“As a result of the misconceptions spread by a section of doctors and vested interests, a large number of consumers in India switched over to other oils such as sunflower oil and palmoil. On the other hand, other countries rediscovered the health benefits of coconut. Virgin coconut oil is widely used as a raw material in baby food in North America while in Europe, palm sugar made from coconut is gaining popularity as a healthy substitute for refined sugar.”
Mr. Kumar said the campaign would use the official media to highlight scientific research confirming the health benefits of coconut oil. This, he said, would give a fillip to coconut-based industries in Kerala.
Neera in tetrapak
The Minister said the coconut park, to be established in Kozhikode, would offer facilities for production of neera in tetrapak containers. The government, he added, had set aside funds in the Budget to procure technology for value addition of crops and provide it free of cost to producers.
Kerala, he said, lagged behind other States and countries such as Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and Thailand in value addition of coconut. Except for coconut oil, the State had little to showcase as a successful coconut-based product.
The Minister said the government would bring out a policy to ensure that farmers get their due share of benefit from value addition of crops. Both farmers and entrepreneurs setting up units in the proposed agro-parks would benefit from the venture.
Mr. Kumar said a massive replanting programme would be taken up in the State to replace the aged and diseased coconut palms with disease-resistant and high-yielding dwarf varieties. Fragmented landholdings with coconut palms would be grouped into clusters for scientific crop management.
Uron N. Salum, executive director, Asia and Pacific Coconut Community, and Krishna Kumar, Head, Central Plantation Crops Research Institute, were present.
