Date:02/07/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/07/02/stories/2007070250670300.htm

Kerala - Kannur

Coir industry unit set up at Alakkode

Staff Reporter

Unit will begin operations within three months

Motorised ratts will be supplied to workers
Organic manure to be distributed to farmers

KANNUR: J.M.J. Industries, a coir industry unit with a capital investment of Rs.75 lakh, has been set up at Thimiri, near Alakkode, here with the aim of using large quantities of coconut husks generated as waste in the hill areas of the district.

The coir mill has been set up with the support of the Coir Board and promoted by the Rural Integrated Development Society (RIDS).

The mill will include a defibring unit, a curling unit for making coir products for firms manufacturing fibre mattress, a weaving unit and a unit for making organic manure from coir pith.

Coir Board chairman A.C. Jose laid the foundation stone for the unit at Thimiri on June 16. RIDS president T.V. John told TheHindu that the coir and fibre unit would begin operations within three months. The processing of coir pith for making Pith Plus manure would begin in a month, he said.

Initially, the unit would employ 25 workers. Later, the unit would employ over 200 people in the rural areas of the region. The mill would also initiate steps next year to collect coir pith now being wasted now in Kannur and Kasaragod districts.

Steps would be taken to distribute the organic manure, made from the pith, to the farmers, Mr. John said. Motorised ratts would be supplied to the workers, he added.

The RIDS, started with the objective of making local farmers self-reliant, planned to set up defibring units at Alakkode, Udayagiri, Naduvil and Chapparappadavu panchayats in the district, he said. Fibre produced by the units would be supplied to the self-help groups and Kudumbasree units to make coir products which, in turn, would be bought back by the RIDS and marketed.

The Coir Board has been organising workshops and awareness camps to motivate the farmers in the district to use coconut husk as raw material. Coir Board Ad hoc Committee member P.V. Narayanan said an estimated 64.2crore coconut was being produced in the district annually.

Large quantities of husk were being discarded as waste, he said. Forty defibring societies and 26 coir societies, under the Kannur Coir Project Office here, function in Kannur and Kasaragod districts.