REVVING UP KARNATAKA’S COCONUT PRODUCTION INDUSTRY

Abstract

Karnataka, along with Kerala and Tamil Nadu accounts for almost 85 percent of the country’s coconut output. Inadequate rains in Karnataka led to a rise in diseases and pest attacks in 2018-19, in the process recording the lowest productivity ever witnessed by the state. According to the Coconut Development Board, Andhra Pradesh (AP) registered the highest productivity in the country, at 13,563 nuts per hectare during the period. It is noteworthy that AP has been raising the tempo in the coconut cultivation space. One of the issues the coconut industry is confronted with is rather uncommon in the Indian scenario – in the domestic market, its output, namely copra, fetches almost 2.5 times what it fetches in the international market, in value terms. In this backdrop, the researcher set out to ascertain the factors that work against the growers in general. The researcher also sought to ascertain the measures needed to address the problems faced by the coconut industry. The investigation led the researcher to conclude that higher domestic prices stifle the exports of coconut products and reduce the consumption of coconut oil, among other things. Growers should not content themselves with mono-cropping practices since it dents productivity. Inter-cropping with cocoa, will go a long way in raising the fortunes of the growers and diversifying away the risk. Incidentally, the country’s cocoa output is far less than the demand. The MSP (minimum support price) concerning ball copra that Karnataka specialises in, has not been computed scientifically and rationally, thereby placing the relevant growers at a disadvantage vis-à-vis the growers of milling copra. NAFED (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd) should raise its storage capacity and as well prolong the procurement period, to impart some stability to coconut prices.