The importance of coconut in Lakshadweep, a predominantly coconut based economy, in providing livelihood options and improving the economic status of its population is of great significance. Inspite of this, the coconut economy in Lakshadweep has reached its peak and is stagnating mainly because of lack of product diversification. Copra, coconut oil and fresh coconut even today comprise its major product base. In order to meet the requirements of a fast growing population, income from these products alone will not suffice. Value added coconut products have huge prospects in the domestic and international markets owing to the health and nutritional attributes of the product, employment generation potential and prospects of better returns. Neera, the non-alcoholic sap of immature inflorescence of coconut has the potential to provide an array of products that can help rejuvenate this sector. This paper attempts to look into various value added products that can be developed from Neera and work out the economics behind the production of Neera.
Abraham et al. (Sun,) studied this question.