Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Monday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to issue instructions to the Ministry concerned to increase the ceiling for copra procurement from 25% to 40% till September this year.
Mr. Stalin also requested an increase in the procurement target for Tamil Nadu from 56,000 MT to 90,000 MT which, he said, would help stabilise the market price of copra, thereby benefiting coconut growers in the State.
Referring to several requests received from coconut growers to increase the procurement target under the Price Support Scheme (PSS) of the Government of India, Mr. Stalin said that under PSS, commodities such as red gram, green gram, black gram and copra were procured to ensure the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for farmers and stabilise the market price.
In Tamil Nadu, PSS procurement was undertaken by the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED), an organisation of the Government of India. Tamil Nadu stood third in area and productivity and second in production of coconut at the national level, with an area of 4.46 lakh hectares, production of 53,518 lakh nuts and productivity of 11,692 nuts per hectare, he noted.
Though copra procurement under PSS was initiated in the State in 2019, the procurement was negligible during the first few years as the market price was well above MSP. However, from 2022, the trend reversed due to increased production of coconut, he said.
As a result, the market price of coconut declined from about ₹2,500 per quintal to ₹1,500 per quintal. Similarly, the market price of copra declined from nearly ₹11,500 per quintal to ₹8,100 per quintal. “This has resulted in a spike in the procurement of copra under PSS in 2022 and in the current year,” the Chief Minister pointed out.
Under PSS, between April and June this year, 47,513 MT of copra had been procured, as against the target of 56,000 MT. Still, three months of the procurement season, i.e., July to September, remain. “As there is still a huge stock of copra available with farmers, and the market price remains low, several representations have been received from farmers across the State to increase procurement under PSS,” Mr. Stalin said.
