Kerala has regained the top spot in coconut production, surpassing the other major producers – Tamil Nadu and Karnataka – in the 2016-17 agriculture year.
With 7.70-lakh hectares (ha) of cultivated area, Kerala’s coconut production touched 7464.25 million nuts, while that of Tamil Nadu was 6171.07 million nuts followed by Karnataka at 5128.89 million. Earlier, Kerala was in third position at 4896.61 million.
A senior official at the Coconut Development Board told that the replanting and rejuvenation schemes and Layout of Demonstration Plots (LODP) adopted by the board have started to yield good results. Moreover, the effective intervention of Farmers Producer Societies for cultivation and marketing, coupled with the scientific cultivation adopted by farmers, also helped to gain the desired results.
It may be recalled that Kerala was in the top position for a long period till 2010-11; later Tamil Nadu overtook, given its advantage of high area under cultivation.
As far as Kerala is concerned, it is not possible to increase area-wise production because of high labour cost and utilisation of agriculture land for other purposes.
“But we can improve per tree production in existing gardens through scientific management practices. This is the way to compete with other growing states,” the official added.
Given the growth rate in production, the official said the board is now focusing on increasing the productivity to a level of 12,000 nuts/ha from the present 9,663 nuts/ha. The productivity in 2010-11 was in the range of 7,000/ha.
However, Kerala still lags behind other States: Andhra Pradesh produces 13,759 nuts/ha, Tamil Nadu 13,423 nuts/ha and Karnataka 9744 nuts/ha. The national productivity has also gone up to touch 10,611 nuts/ha.
The increase in production has also ensured farmers a remunerative return at a farm gate price of ₹15/nut and a retail price in the range of ₹32-34/kg. Thus, coconut cultivation has become a viable proposition as far as the ailing sector is concerned.
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