<p>The objective of the project was to design and introduce presses for making coconut milk, and then<br />convert this coconut milk into virgin coconut oil. The locale for the project was car Nicobar Island, in<br />the Nicobar District of the Andaman &amp; Nicobar Islands.<br />The project got off to a late start because of two problems. Firstly, there were major design problems<br />with the press, which took over a year to resolve. Modifications suggested by the fabricators did not<br />stand the test of field trials. In the process the design was considerably modified and four presses had to<br />be discarded. Secondly, the Andaman Administration refused to issue a tribal area pass for the Nicobars<br />for whimsical reasons. This was overcome after several months, and included intervention by DST.<br />A local Nicobari youth group consisting mainly of young women, the Dosti Group, was identified as<br />the focus group for the project. One of them was employed as the field coordinator, and machines were<br />then sent to the Nicobar Islands. Demonstrations were held, and modifications made until they were<br />happy with the final design.<br />The use of electrical coconut graters was attempted. This was abandoned since the village women,who<br />traditionally did the grating, complained that they could not converse during what was a community<br />activity.<br />The youth group members have begun extracting the oil hygienically. They buy grated coconut at the<br />rate of N 130 per litre, process it into oil and sell it at N 150 per litre.This works out to around N 10 per<br />coconut, more than double the existing rate of N 4 per coconut.</p>