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MUMBAI, Oct. 24

COIR can contribute to promotion of clean energy and for development of cleaner and more efficient environment technologies as it can substitute wood, thereby preventing felling of tropical trees, experts said.

The alarming decline in the global tropical forest cover which today is a mere 6 per cent (down from 14 per cent once) has got everyone worried. The rate of deforestation is as high as 7.5 million hectares a year; while forest resources in the third world countries are already reduced by 40 per cent.

The Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) envisaged in the Kyoto Protocol are part of ecologically sound ``clean development'' which examines ways and means of utilising renewable sources of energy.

Coir has for long been used in house building, boat making and other critical applications. It is strong and resistant to changing weather conditions compared to wood.

To substitute coir for wood, the coir industry in the country will be boosted substantially in the coconut producing states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Jharkand, Orissa, Tripura and West Bengal.

The technology for producing non-traditional coir products will be promoted in these States, with the backing of strong research and development to enable further development of products using coir.

Non-traditional coir products include non-woven coir, coir geo-textiles, wood substitutes such as coir ply, and decorative matting boards and coir pith, which has immense potential has soil conditioner and moisture-retaining medium for horticulture applications.

Non-traditional coir products can open up new markets, both domestic and international. Diversified products like wood substitutes, packaging material, garden articles, automobile accessories, and long-term bio-degradable geo-textiles can be popularised for commercial exploitation. A study shows the total production of coir fibre in India is an estimated 3.64 lakh tonnes. The coir industry in the country currently employs five lakh people in rural areas, 80 per cent of them being women.

However, almost 70 per cent of the husk is wasted as only 30 per cent of the available husk is utilised to produce traditional and non-traditional coir products. An effort to reduce wastage of husk would result in increased production and revenue growth, creating direct employment for many more rural people.

A reduction in wastage of husk from 70 per cent to 50 per cent would result in incremental production of 2.43 lakh tonnes, opening vistas for direct employment to three lakh rural people — with the majority being women — thereby generating a revenue growth of Rs 1,500 crore per annum.

A sustainable development of coir will enhance the lives of rural people and help fight poverty, it is believed.

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