TIRUCHY: With a drop in open-market copra prices every day and a delay in the commencement of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India's (NAFED) Price Support Scheme (PSS) procurement for the current season, the coconut farmers across Tamil Nadu, particularly from the Delta region, appealed to the state government to purchase fresh coconuts similar to KERAFED (Kerala Kerakarshaka Sahakarana Federation Ltd) to avoid stagnation of copra and to support farmers.
According to the coconut farmers, the NAFED has yet to commence the annual procurement of copra from April to May this year, leading to the private players' intrusion into the market and the procurement of the copra at a slashed price.
“While the support price of NAFED has been fixed at Rs 120 per kg of copra, the private players had fixed it at up to Rs 150 per kg. The farmers had shown interest in providing copra to the private players this year. As the NAFED had not shown interest in procurement, the copras were discoloured and citing the colour, the private players slashed the prices up to Rs 120 per kg, affecting the farmers immensely,” said EV Gandhi, the president of East Coast Coconut Farmers Association.
Pointing out that NAFED procures copra through the state-run marketing facility, Gandhi urged the state government to pressurise NAFED to commence the procurement as early as possible to prevent a huge loss to the farmers.
Gandhi also noted that the Kerala government has been procuring fresh coconuts through KERAFED for Rs 40 per kg, and the officials had visited Tamil Nadu a few months back to purchase copras, as the demand surpassed cultivation in Kerala.
“Despite the KERAFED officials demanding 100 tonnes of copra per day from Western and Delta regions, the plan was dropped as the then Tamil Nadu government showed little interest. We also proposed the distribution of coconut oil instead of palm oil in the PDS outlets, but no proper response from the previous government. We will approach Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay and put forth our demands,” Gandhi said.