Govt.of Kerala have declared the year 2000-2001 as Coir Geotextiles Year (Coir Bhoovasthra Varsha) and a host of different projects have been launched in the year under the style and title "Coir Geotextiles Development Program. The primary objective of this program is to propagate the use of Coir Geotextiles by demonstrating the applications potential of these sustainable and renewable resources in various geotechnical development situations. One of the major components of the program is the implementation of 10 pilot projects at the national level in association with various development agencies/departments of Govt. of India.
 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
       Coir industry is the most important traditional industry of the state of Kerala. It supports the livelihood of around 3 lakh people of the state. It still remains one of the major foreign exchange earners for the state. The coir industry has of late achieved the status of a modern industry thanks to the efforts of the state government through the schemes like ICDP. One of the main objectives of ICDP is to enhance the utilisation levels of husk from the present level of 30% and to improve the productivity at various levels of production. The raw material segment witnessed dramatic growth in terms of production of coir yarn without adequate downward integration efforts resulting in the accumulation of stock. This was an eye opener for the state which resulted in intensive campaign for the product diversification and value addition efforts. The Coir geo-textiles development programme is the result of these efforts realising the immense potential of Coir geo-textiles as a sustainable resource for the geo-technical engineering based development solutions. It is known that natural fibre based geo-textiles are fast emerging as a major product category where soil bio-engineering is applied as a development solution in areas such as slope erosion, river and canal embankment protection, revegetation, Vertical drains etc. The Global geo-textiles market estimated to be a 1200 million dollar business is growing at over 10%. A market share of 10% for the natural fibre based geo-textiles would mean around Rs 500 Crores. Among the natural fibres the Coir is the most preferred one on account of various inherent properties of Coir.