Skip to main content

Shortage of korai grass hits mat industry in Salem(thehindu)



Poor flow in River Cauvery has led to severe shortage of korai grass which, in turn, has badly hit the korai mat industry in Salem district.

About 1,000 korai mat production centres are functioning in Kanjanayakkanpatti, Sikkanapatti, Tarapuram and Semmandapatti employing more than 15,000 workers.

Till a few decades ago, the mats were hand-woven due to which only a very few mats were produced in a day. Later, the manufacturing process changed and power loom units have been set up for the production of korai mats


They can produce about 300 mats every day.

Demand

The korai mats produced in Salem district have good demand in states including West Bengal, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Korai grass is raised in abundance in the villages situated on the banks of River Cauvery in Tiruchi, Karur and Namakkal districts.

Due to the failure of monsoon, there is very poor flow of water in River Cauvery for the past two months, which has affected the korai grass cultivation in Tiruchi, Musiri and Kulithalai.

According to Sivaji, owner of Sivaji korai mat production unit at Kanjanayakkanpatti Melmottur village near Omalur, the arrival of korai grass stock from Tiruchi, Karur and Namakkal districts has dwindled in the last couple of months.

Price

This has led to steep increase in the price of korai grass.

The price of a bundle (kattu) of korai grass, which stood at Rs. 800 a couple of months ago, has gone up to Rs. 1,300 at present, he says.

The water situation in Mettur Dam continues to be very grim and further delay in the onset of north-east monsoon will prove a disaster to this industry.

The standing korai grass is expected to last only for the next two months, says Mr. Sivaji.

Despite the grass price going up, the price of mats could not be increased due to the fear of losing patronage. Even though the korai mat industry is fully concentrated in the rural areas, it does not enjoy any support from the government.

A cross-section of the korai mat weavers of Kanjanayakkanpatti pleaded with the government to extend the free power supply scheme, at present in vogue for the power loom industry, to the korai mat weaving units too.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SC asks Centre to strike a balance on Rohingya issue (.hindu)

Supreme Court orally indicates that the government should not deport Rohingya “now” as the Centre prevails over it to not record any such views in its formal order, citing “international ramifications”.

The Supreme Court on Friday came close to ordering the government not to deport the Rohingya.

It finally settled on merely observing that a balance should be struck between humanitarian concern for the community and the country's national security and economic interests.

The court was hearing a bunch of petitions, one filed by persons within the Rohingya community, against a proposed move to deport over 40,000 Rohingya refugees. A three-judge Bench, led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, began by orally indicating that the government should not deport Rohingya “now”, but the government prevailed on the court to not pass any formal order, citing “international ramifications”. With this, the status quo continues even though the court gave the community liberty to approach it in …
3 comments
Click Here To Read more »

Khar’s experimentation with Himalayan nettle brings recognition (downtoearth)

Nature never fails to surprise us. In many parts of the world, natural resources are the only source of livelihood opportunities available to people. They can be in the form of wild shrubs like Daphne papyracea and Daphne bholua (paper plant) that are used to make paper or Gossypium spp (cotton) that forms the backbone of the textile industry.

Nothing can compete with the dynamism of biological resources. Recently, Girardinia diversifolia (Himalayan nettle), a fibre-yielding plant, has become an important livelihood option for people living in the remote mountainous villages of the Hindu Kush Himalaya.

There is a community in Khar, a hamlet in Darchula district in far-western Nepal, which produces fabrics from Himalayan nettle. The fabric and the things made from it are sold in local as well as national and international markets as high-end products.

A Himalayan nettle value chain development initiative implemented by the Kailash Sacred Landscape Conservation and Development Initiati…
Post a Comment
Click Here To Read more »

India’s criminal wastage: over 10 million works under MGNREGA incomplete or abandoned (hindu)

In the last three and half years, the rate of work completion under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has drastically declined, leading to wastage of public money and leaving villages more prone to drought. This could also be a reason for people moving out of the programme.

At a time when more than one-third of India’s districts are reeling under a drought-like situation due to deficit rainfall, here comes another bad news. The works started under the MGNREGA—close to 80 per cent related to water conservation, irrigation and land development—are increasingly not being completed or in practice, abandoned.

Going by the data (as on October 12) in the Ministry of Rural Development’s website, which tracks progress of MGNREGA through a comprehensive MIS, 10.4 million works have not been completed since April 2014. In the last three and half years, 39.7 million works were started under the programme. Going by the stipulation under the programme, close to 7…
Post a Comment
Click Here To Read more »