KOTTAYAM: Plantation Corporation of Kerala Ltd. (PCK) will embark on an ambitious five-year diversification and modernisation programme `Vision 2012' has been designed with the objective of making the public-sector plantation company competitive and profitable when it celebrates its Golden Jubilee in 2012, said chairman T.J. Anjelose and managing director Babu Thomas.

Talking to mediapersons here on Thursday, Mr Anjelose said the action plan envisaged raising productivity of the existing rubber, cashew and oil palm plantations and taking up organic farming in a big way through cultivation of vegetables as inter-crops in the plantations.

The PCK also planned to take up jetropha farming in view of the increasing demand for bio diesel. Diversification of produces to medicinal plants, pineapple, pepper, gooseberry, cinnamon bark and `pathimukom' are also on the anvil in addition to projects in bee keeping and sericulture, he said.

Modernisation of factories and standardisation of products to secure ISO certification have been planned as part of `Vision 2012.' The PCK will also enter the higher education sector by starting programmes in Plantation Management with the active participation of universities. Construction of a training centre at Kottayam for upgrading the skills of workers and officers is under consideration.

A research and development wing of the Corporation would also be set up, Mr Anjelose said.

Expansion of the Athirappally Plantation Valley tourist centre and construction of a new one at Perambra will be taken up as part of `Vision 2012.'

The Director Board of the Corporation has given the green signal for the setting up of a modern latex factory at Kodumon at an estimated cost of Rs.

4.50 crore. A commercial complex on the Corporation's land in Kozhikode town, which will also house the regional office of the PCK, and a cashew factory and cashew fruit processing unit in Malabar are also on the anvil, he said. Cinnamon oil production unit in Kannur and a palm oil unit for processing produces from its Athirappally and Kallala estates are also under active consideration.

Vision 2012 will be formally launched at the PCK headquarters here on April 30 by Agriculture Minister Mullakkara Ratnakaran.

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