Kerala   

Spices Park opened

New facility:Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy inaugurating the Spices Park at Puttady in Idukki district on Sunday.

PUTTADY (Idukki district): Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy has called for a permanent mechanism to counter price fluctuations of farm produce and shield farmers from their impact.

Inaugurating Spices Park, a Spices Board project, here on Sunday, Mr. Chandy said that farmers should strive to produce crops considering their global demand.

They had reaped the benefits of the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement as the prices of cardamom and pepper had gone up.

However, those producing crops which did not fetch high prices should be protected.

He said the Union and the State governments must work together to devise a way out. Since there was a huge demand for organic produce, farmers should focus on that cultivation method too.

“The world has shrunk to a small village. One cannot keep aloof from such changes,” he said.

The park will help local farm produce compete at the global level, he said and added that the government, the bureaucracy and the farmers should work together so that the latter benefited from the rise in prices.

Low pepper production

Mr. Chandy said that pepper production had fallen in the district owing to factors such as climate change. The trend should be countered by producing value-added products. He congratulated V.J. Kurien, Chairman of the Spices Board, for drawing up and implementing the project.

The park, set up to bring under a roof treatment, storing and marketing of cardamom and pepper, has facilities for e-auction, colour-grading and sorting of cardamom, apart from a modern godown.

The park has treatment facilities for white pepper. It will have equipment for making value-added products and will provide facilities for their marketing.

Loans will be available on the basis of stocked products. The park will be controlled by a trust created under the Spices Board Chairman.

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