Finally, TN government clears neera production

About eight crore coconut trees are in the state under an area of 10.74 lakh acres of land. Farmers have long been demanding that the state allow them to produce neera from the trees to augment their profit.

As per the guidelines, the given licence would be valid for a year and it should be renewed every year in March. Besides producing neera, the farmers can also manufacture other value-added products from them.

The neera extraction would be consistently monitored by the officials and violation of food safety standards would result in cancellation of the permit.

The number of permits to be granted in each district would be decided by the officials, the government order said.

The farmers had been protesting against the ban on neera extraction when neighbouring states like Kerala and Karnataka are allowing it since it is considered as a health drink due to its high nutritive and medicinal value.

Kerala had granted licences to coconut producers’ societies and federations to tap neera in specified quantities in the year 2014 and it is being processed and marketed. Following the Kerala model, Karnataka government too had amended laws to allow neera tapping by farmers.

However, the state government was hesitant since neera could easily be fermented and turned into toddy in a matter of hours. But, farmers organisations had questioned the policy as why neera is banned, while IMFL is allowed in the state.