Sri Vijaya Puram, Sept. 3: All India Coordinated Research Project on Plantation Crops along with ICAR-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute, Sri Vijaya Puram celebrated World Coconut Day with the theme ‘Coconut in times of uncertainty: Securing Food, Energy and Livelihoods’ at its Horticulture Research Farm, Sippighat.
World Coconut Day is celebrated every year on September 2 to honour the significance of coconut in nutrition, economy, and culture. The Asian and Pacific Coconut Community, Jakarta, Indonesia- an intergovernmental organization of coconut-producing countries established this day during 2009 and since then it is celebrated across the member countries. To commemorate the day, an exposure visit was organized for a group of 48 farmers, farmwomen and Krishi Sakhis from North and Middle Andaman along with representatives from ATMA and KVK, South Andaman.
During the visit, Dr. Ajit Arun Waman, Senior Scientist and Principal Investigator, AICRP on Plantation Crops showcased the diversity of coconut conserved at the World Coconut Germplasm Centre and educated the farmers about various improved varieties developed at ICAR-CIARI for commercial scale cultivation. He explained about wide options of intercrops suitable for crop diversification in coconut plantations. He elaborated the need of incorporating various spices, fruits and flowers as intercrops to make coconut farming profitable. In the field, he demonstrated cultivation of various spices such as cinnamon, clove, black pepper, nutmeg, ginger, turmeric and mango ginger apart from blocks of banana, pineapple and local fruits. He urged the participants to utilize the coconut plantations for cultivation of these cash crops to make farming profitable.
Dr. Ajit also explained about need of mechanization especially in the areas of coconut harvesting and postharvest handling considering the limited manpower available for agriculture in the islands. Practical sessions on use of coconut climbing devices and coconut dehusking machine were conducted apart from demonstration of cinnamon harvesting using Dweep CinnRub for the benefit of the stakeholders. Some participants also tried their hands on climbing device as cinnamon harvesting, which were completely new learning experiences for them.
The participants interacted during the sessions to get their doubts on various aspects of horticulture solved and agreed to take up some of the showcased activities at their farms. The programme was organized under the guidance of Dr. Jai Sunder, Director (A), ICAR-CIARI, who felt it pertinent to organize an exposure visit to the farmers from North and Middle Andaman Islands, which is a major production belt of horticultural crops.