Government Agencies and Coir Co-operatives in Kerala

Besides providing additional employment, government agencies have not made any positive contribution to the development of coir co-operatives.
COIR industry is an important agro-based employment-oriented traditional cottage industry in India. Kerala is the largest producer of coir and coir products in India. Coir Board (Cochin) is the pioneer government agency in the coir sector established for the overall development of the industry in the country. The state level government agencies working in the coir sector are the Directorate of Coir Development (Thiru- vananihapuram), the Kerala State Coir Corporation (Alappuzha) and the Kerala State Co-operative Coir Marketing Federation (Alappu/.ha). All these government agencies gave attention to the development of the industry through the organised sector, viz, co-operative sector. In every Five-Year Plan, there are various schemes for coir development in the co-operative sector through these agencies. The government agencies undertake a number of schemes for the development of coir industry in the cooperative sector. However, the private sector has a dominant place in the industry and is working without any sort of assistance from these agencies. Hence it would be quite useful to conduct a study aimed at analysing the impact of the working of these agencies on the co-operative sector of the industry.