|
|
|
You can get e-magazine links on WhatsApp. Click here
|
|
|
|
|
|
Varanashi Subraya Bhat, founder of areca nut co-op Campco, passes away
|
|
Tuesday, 31 December, 2013, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
|
|
Our Bureau, Bengaluru
|
Varanashi Subraya Bhat, founder, Central Arecanut and Cocoa Marketing and Processing Cooperative Ltd (Campco), passed away at the age of 86. Bhat, who was born in a middle-class agricultural family, lost his wife five years ago, and is survived by two sons and two daughters.
In the early-1970s, there was a sudden decline in the areca nut prices, and this led to organise the areca nut farmers of Karnataka and Kerala to start Campco with the objective to provide the growers a better remuneration. He was Campco’s president from its inception in 1973 upto the end of December 1990.
The recipient of a number of accolades, Bhat was responsible for setting up the first chocolate factory at Puttur, in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada, in 1986. The areca nut growers engaged in cultivation of cocoa as an inter-crop in areca nut plantations were in quandary with the fall in the global prices of cocoa.
When Campco came into the market, it revived the purchase of buying wet cocoa beans from farmers. He had served as president, All India Arecanut and Cocoa Growers’ Association; chairman, Cocoa and Arecanut Development Committee (ministry of agriculture), and member, Western Ghat Development Committee (ministry of planning).
The government of Karnataka, in recognition of his experience in agricultural marketing and cooperation, appointed him as a member of the committee to recommend amendments to the Karnataka Agricultural Produce Marketing Act, and of another committee to recommend amendments to the Karnataka State Cooperative Societies’ Act.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|