COPRA-The agro-economy of Lakshadweep People.

Lakshadweep has its own peculiarity due to its geographical isolation from our mother land India. Coconut and fishing is the main occupation of the islanders. The coconuts may be reached here through the vast ocean sea route by floating from the neighboring state of Kerala or from the neighboring country Ceylon. Or the earliest settlers, who came from the Malabar cost, might have brought with them the Coconut tree, their Kalpavriksha (the beneficent tree of heaven).  The high water table, nearness to the sea, gentle breeze, abundant sunshine and porous soil contributed the rich growth of the coconut tree which served the numerous needs of the early settlers. Even after centuries, the coconut tree maintains its supremacy in the domestic economy of the islands and even now it is the only crop of economic importance.

The earliest settlers had planted coconut trees only on a small scale. There were vast areas of waste land when the British took over the islands. The policy of the British Government was to let out such Government lands to the individuals on cowle ( a system of granting lands on improving leases). The cowle system boosted the coconut plantation covering the entire islands, it is believed.

The total geographical area of the islands is 32 Sq. Kms. Except for a few places of low lying lands in Andrott and  Kalpeni, the entire cultivable area has been planted with coconuts. When coconut attained commercial importance, people interested to its cultivation.

There are special varieties of coconuts like Chenga, Karinga. Orange and Green dwarf varieties are famous (tender coconut) for welcome drinks. A good number of coconut trees are grown naturally without any scientific methods of manure. Most of the varieties are productive and give high yielding in Lakshadweep. In many islands the coconut palms are thickly populated without adopting any scientific method. The Agricultural Demonstration Units in all islands are helping the coconut farmers to increase the productivity by adopting scientific methods, organic farming and minimize nut damage loss by demonstration practices. The Agricultural Department in Lakshadweep is providing funds for the rodent control through community rat hunting programmes under the auspices of Village Dweep Panchyats by providing required scientific and local methods. The Administration also encouraging inter-cropping in the inter spaces available in coconut plantations.

Making copra is the main object of the farmers as there is no scope for any coconut based major industry in the islands. It is the life line of most of the people who has the only source of income for their livelihood. As the younger generation is not interested to take any task for earning, aged people only are seen engaged in the field of copra making in the islands. This may be the reason that a major part of coconuts are turned to seedling. The modern developments took place in the islands are encouraged the educated youths to find out white color jobs leaving behind the traditional job of making copra.

The process of copra making is normally carried out during the period fair season except May to September (Monsoon) in all islands. This process is being carried out throughout the fair season, before the onset of Monsoon. Before that the land owners used to finish their harvesting of coconuts so as to enable complete the process before Monsoon. Plucking of coconuts also a major problem faced by the farmers/land owners in the islands, due to non availability of coconut climbers. They are very few in numbers now a days. The labourers came from mainland are engaged in this job of climbing and plucking coconuts in the islands.

After the harvest of bulk collection of the coconuts, next process is to removal of husks- de husking. This is a highly skilled work of a traditional method using an iron crow bar, a sharp edged weapon. Now a de-husking machine – a very simple tool for easily removing the husk is available in the market. After that, the next work will be started in the early morning that is splitting the nuts into two equal pieces with the help of a big sharp knife, this is also a risky job as the coconut shells are very strong. During this process a special item called”fongu” is removed from some nuts. This is a sweet part of a day old nut which has grown to become a seedling. It is then kept under the sun for a week; after two or three days the shells will be removed with a wooden weapon locally called ‘parakol’. In this stage the product is now called Copra, the Dry Coconut. This product is known as “Deevai Copra” in the market. All these traditional process will be completed with the drying of the pieces of coconuts under the direct sun. After that the copra is temporarily packed in gunny bags weighing about 30 Kgs each by farmers and it will be taken to the Copra yard of the concerned societies in the islands as per the notice issued by the authority on a specified date and time.

The marketing part of copra is being looked after by the LCMF through the co-operative societies in all islands. They are the authorized agents to market this product through the Lakshadweep Co operative Marketing Federation (LCMF). The main office of the LCMF is at Beypore and it has a branch at Mangalore. The co operative societies are functioning in all the ten islands and it is managed by a Board of Directors as per its Bye-law registered under Societies Registration Act-1961. The coconut farmers are informed by the societies about the collection of Copra well in advance in every year by issuing a notice. The copra so collected is sorted by the authority consisting of the members of the Society’s Board of Directors. In order to make value added qualitative product this process is very important, revealed Shri.P.Muhsin, Secretary Co-Operative Society, Agatti. While sorting, the spoiled or damaged copra due to heavy moisture content and fungus affected will be removed and the good quality copra only will be properly weighed in 30 Kgs in each gunny bags. Each bag is labeled as “ C/Agt” to identify the consignment at the LCMF Godown at Mangalore.

The annual production of copra and its income to the islands are amounted to croers of rupees, as per the following details of Agatti Island only, revealed from reliable sources.

ISLAND WISE TRANSACTION OF MARKETING OF COPRA

(Quantity in MT and Value in Lakhs)

		2006-2007		2007-2008		2008-2009		2009-2010		2010-2011
Sl.No	Name of Island	Qty	Value	Qty	Value	Qty	Value	Qty	Value	Qty	Value
1	Kavaratti	502.43	180.37	492.85	188.09	488.22	196.94	542.97	240.95	250.71	160.86
2	Kalpeni	365.52	131.22	367.06	140.63	330.09	133.79	395.01	175.78	189.84	122.05
3	Amini	395.24	141.89	415.54	158.73	449.63	181.93	515.29	227.15	287.78	185.82
4	Andrott	683.39	224.59	677.08	254.34	749.92	306.63	800.21	356.09	325.38	215.78
5	Minicoy	11.19	4.01	20.66	7.57	8.45	3.29	28.89	12.85	6.11	3.86
6	Agatti	362.85	130.26	367.61	139.98	427.75	174.38	467.57	208.07	313.71	200.89
7	Kadmat	192.92	69.25	255.37	94.11	259.74	100.93	290.91	129.46	157.04	103.81
8	Kiltan	219.56	78.82	207.67	79.71	271.36	108.72	270.98	120.59	216.00	140.38
9	Chetlat	89.81	32.24	130.32	49.53	131.75	51.82	140.47	62.51	79.22	50.49
10	Bitra	8.96	3.21	10.77	3.93	14.01	5.41	13.73	6.11	12.55	7.91
	Total	2831.87	1015.86	2944.93	1116.62	3130.92	1263.84	3466.02	1539.56	1838.34	1191.85

[Source: The Agatti Island Co Operative Marketing Society]

A brief of export details of deevai copra by coop.supply & marketing society, Agatti to LCMF, Mangalore during the year 2011-12.

The Agatti Island Co Operative Marketing Society has exported a total quantity of copra 30 Kg Bags x 10000 Bags = 330 M T an estimated cost of the product is Rs. 168.30 Lakhs during 2011-12. This consignment was marketed to NAFED as the open market of copra is very less compared to support prize, said the Secretary.

The consignments of thousands of copra bags are normally used to store safely for want of a suitable conveyance to Mangalore port. Usually the copra is being transported in Motor Sailing Vessels as the handling of loading/unloading can be done easily from jetty to vessel directly and vize versa. The first consignment of this copra season 2253 bags already dispatched to Mangalore in MSV. Jamaliya on 11^th March 2012. The first position to export copra in Lakshadweep is Andrott, second is Amini and third position is the capital island Kavaratti, it is learnt. Agatti comes in fourth position, reveals reliable sources.

The LCMF and Cooperative Supply & Marketing societies in the islands are the very back bone of the Island economy as far as marketing of Agricultural products and the distribution of consumer goods as the PDS is being handled through the Cooperative Supply & Marketing societies in Lakshadweep. A brief on the Island wise transaction of marketing of Copra for the last five years are as follows.

-By effgee Minicoy