Business

Toddy-based soft drink project yet to take off

KANNUR: The proposal to develop and market a sweet toddy-based non-alcoholic soft drink, announced with much fanfare six years ago with the blessings of none other than the then Leader of the Opposition and present Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, remains a distant possibility.

That too, after scientists of the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) have developed a technology for preserving the drink from coconut sap.

But the non-alcoholic beverage, which was even christened Kerasudha, was doomed to be a non-starter from the very beginning.

The KAU announced in September 2006 that the technology developed at the Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS) at Pilikode in Kasaragod under the National Agricultural Technology Project (NATP) and funded by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) was in a stage to be transferred as a pilot scheme.

KAU authorities, in a recent disclosure, made a climb down saying the development of the technology had not reached a stage where it could be disclosed to the pubic.

The chronology of events in the development of the beverage begins with the KAU giving sanction in January 2000 for starting the programme at the RARS. The outlay was Rs.14 lakh.

RARS Assistant Professor M.P. Giridharan was the principal investigator of the programme for developing non-fermentable soft drinks, among other things, from palm sap. Experiments started in May 2000 and a detailed project report was submitted by him to the ICAR.

In a separate development, the then Finance Minister T. Sivadasa Menon earmarked Rs.5 lakh in the 2001 budget as a token provision for promoting commercialisation of Kerasudha.

In May 2001, the ICAR approved Dr. Giridharan’s research proposal announcing financial allocation of Rs.10.78 lakh under the NATP. The programme, however, hit a roadblock when then KAU Pro Vice-Chancellor Pathiyur Gopinath announced in November 2001 that a team led by him had developed a soft drink called Kerasudha from sweet toddy as part of a research project under the KAU’s Agro Biotechnology Agency for Rural Employment and Development (ABARD).

On Dr. Giridharan’s complaint citing the ICAR’s stipulation that research work under the NATP should not duplicate the work already done or being carried out, the KAU executive committee constituted a high-level committee.

Dr. Giridharan questioned Dr. Gopinath’s claim. “I appealed to the inquiry committee to include in the terms of reference the questions whether the research work of Dr. Gopinath was being carried out in the KAU for the past two years as on November 2001,” said Dr. Giridharan.

He told The Hindu that he had not received any response to his representation. When contacted over the phone, Dr. Gopinath, who is now the head of the KAU’s Instructional Farm at Vellanikkara, said the technology under the ABARD scheme had been developed in 1999-2000.

The technology transfer had been stalled due to the ‘intervention’ of KAU authorities as he was slapped with the allegation that he had ‘stolen’ Dr. Giridharan’s technology, he said.

“The inquiry by the committee reached nowhere and the university authorities are not ready to disclose the report of the committee,” he said.

Stating that he developed the technology in six or seven months, he said he had only developed it from the practice of traditional toddy tappers. “The technology has been a public property and its patent should go to the toddy tappers,” Dr. Gopinath said.

Present KAU Director of Research (DR) D. Alexander, when contacted, refused to comment.

The State government in October 2002 had constituted an expert committee to study the possibility of project diversification of what it called Neera/allied toddy-based products. Dr. Giridharan was a member of the committee.

In February 2006, the then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had announced the proposal for setting up units for making Neera at Perambra, Payyannur and Aralam. The DR, in a note submitted to the Vice-Chancellor, said the technology developed at the RARS was in a stage to be transferred to entrepreneurs on the basis of conditions for transfer of technology.

Dr. Giridharan attended a high-level meeting convened by Agricultural Minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran in the capital on July 5 last to discuss the prospects of commercial production Neera. Dr. Gopinath, however, dared Dr. Giridharan to disclose the technology if he developed it. “I am obliged to hand over the technology to any entrepreneur with the permission of the university,” Dr. Giridharan retorted.

He said he had recently submitted a project proposal for making the soft drink with an estimated outlay of Rs.14 crore.

As the technology developed for making Neera from the sap continues to be mired in controversy, RARS scientists say the project can now be salvaged by the KAU if it allows more transparency in the whole affair.

Moreover, any commercial use of the sweet toddy-based soft

drink requires amendment of the Abkari Act.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu