In news
Entire Lakshadweep group of islands being declared an organic agricultural area, the island administration is eyeing an expansion of the traditional business in coconuts and coconut products through value addition, better marketing, and round-the-year processing.
Stats for Coconut production
- Around 10 crore coconuts are produced on the island in 12,000 small holdings with an average size of 0.25 hectares, sources in the island administration say.
- The total acreage under coconuts is around 2,800 hectares.
- The nuts are processed now mostly for oil and the islands being declared an organic agricultural area will give a big boost to their business, sources add.
- At the same time, there is tremendous scope for expanding the business.
- At present, only about 3 crore nuts are processed on the island and there is an excess of around 7 crore nuts, which are mostly sold in mainland India.
Lakshadweep
- Lakshadweep is physically cut off from the mainland; for the last 15 years, no chemical has been shipped into this territory, except medicines and some cosmetics.
- This has already made Lakshadweep 100 per cent organic by default.
- Lakshadweep consists of 36 islands and is India’s smallest UT. It is a uni-district UT and comprises 12 atolls, three reefs, five submerged banks and 10 inhabited islands.
- All islands are 220-440 km away from Kochi.
Source: The Hindu
