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| Lonappan Panthallookkaran, Deepam Palm Dish, St.Thomas Street, Mapco Marg, Kuriyachira, Thrissur 680006 Ph: 0487- 2251966 |
Spathe of arecanut palms (Paala) had once been used as improvised buckets for drawing water from wells. In the era of overabundance of plastics, they are being tried out as disposable food plates, toys and artifacts. One such effort is the network established by Lonappan Panthallookkaran, the head of , to produce such items and provide employment to the jobless and additional income to farmers.
His foray into the manufacturing of palm products started after a journey to Kolkatta to visit his daughter in 1987. When he saw the local people using food-plates made of leaves joined together, he started thinking of using the spathe for similar purposes.
After designing the machine to manufacture these plates, he established about 100 manufacturing units in Kannur, Kasaragod, Wynad and Kozhikode Districts where arecanut trees are abundant. These units comprising of unemployed youth and women produce the plates using machines supplied by him. The finished products are bought and marketed by his firm Deepam Palm Dishes.
In order to provide the product to the Indian Railway catering service, he is planning to expand the network further. Last month, as part of trade enquiry, a team from Germany visited the company and examined the samples.
In addition to plates, ice cream cup, soap box, flower vase, ornamental items etc can be made from the spathe, as the workshop of Panthallookkaran testifies. Kerala, where the spathes just fall and decay, and unemployed youth while away and fritter their time, and farmers fail to make agriculture a profitable proposition, such innovations have indeed significance.
Courtesy:
Karshakashree, October 2006
Contributed by: Administrator
