KOZHIKODE, November 4: The Kerala government is to set up a finance corporation modelled on the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) for agro-based industries.

Agriculture Minister Krishnan Kaniamparambil told mediapersons here on Monday that a special officer had been appointed for this. Of the Rs 50 crore capital investment required, the department has set apart Rs 5 crore towards working capital and the remaining amount would be mobilised from non-resident Indians (NRIs).Besides, as part of efforts to popularise cashew cultivation in the districts of Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur, Kasaragod and some parts of Wayanad, a cashew development authority would be set up this year. The government has allotted Rs 2 crore towards working capital.

Detailed plans have also been prepared to develop various products out of rubber and coconut. One such scheme is the Rs 36-crore rubber park coming up in Kochi. The Plantation Corporation and the State Farming Corporation have worked out a project for setting up a two-wheeler tyre manufacturing unit in a bid to widen the consumption of rubber.

Regarding rubber procurement in the state, he said the State Trading Corporation had procured only 14,000 tonnes at Rs 40 per kg during the last two months and the rubber marketing federation 4,400 tonnes. Therefore, the government had asked the 35 primary co-operative societies under the rubber marketing federation to procure another 10,000 tonnes, he added.

Plans were afoot for a Rs 5-crore coconut powder manufacturing unit, a coconut oil bottling plant and a processing centre in Kozhikode. This was aimed at protecting farmers in the event of increased import of coconut from next year, he added. As a long-term strategy, the government would implement a paddy development scheme which aims to achieve a production of at least 50 per cent of the state's requirement of paddy. A five-memeber committee had been formed to look into the problems of paddy farmers. The area under paddy cultivation had dropped to 4.71 lakh hectres from 8 lakh hectares in 1997, he pointed out. The state, importing 17 lakh tonnes of vegetables from the neighbouring states, will be able to produce an additional 15 lakh tonnes within three years of implementation of the mass-oriented vegetable development programme.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.