HEALTHY COCONUT PALMS
A project to grow coconut trees tolerant of root wilt disease in 100 hectares of Pathanamthitta district has been launched by the Christian Agency for Rural Development (CARD) Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) a farm science center of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for the district.
KVK project coordinator P.C. Robert said distribution of wilt-tolerant'Elite'palm seedlings to farmers of select panchats had been under way at the CARD-KVK centre at Thelliyoor near Thiruvalla from last week." The project is part of the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana(RKVY) scheme" he said. The root wilt disease was detected in 1982 in Kaviyoor and Kallooppara panchayats of Pathannamthitta.
The disease was prevalent in Thiruvananthapuram,Kollam,Pathanamthitta, Alapuzha,Kottayam,Idukki, Ernakulam, and thrissur districts . He said the KVK had made extensive survey in root wilt affected areas to identify trees that were healthy, high yielding and not affected by wilt. Some coconut trees in Kaviyoor and Kalloopara panchayats were found to be resistant to the disease, If a palm of higher age showed no symptom of disease even in the midst of highly diseased palms,that too in the place of origin of the disease, it could be a disease-resistant palm. These palms were utilised to collect nuts to produce quality planting materials for large-scale distribution.
The productivity of coconut tree was very low in Pathanamthitta (28nuts/palm/year mainly due to root wilt disease.More than 96.5 percent of the trees surveyed by KVK in seven major coconut growing panchayats of the district had this disease, he said.
According to Mr Robert, the area under coconut cultivation in the district is fast declining,mainly owing to low productivity,low price of the produce,high cost of production,and labour shortage( especially for Climbing) Steady increase inthe price of rubber had been tempting farmers to switch over to rubber plantation in many parts of the district,he said.
Vinod Mathew,principal investigator of the the project, said the survey was carried out in the seven panchayats of Nedumpuram,Kaviyoor,Kalloopara,Kuttoor,Perigara,Kadapra and Niranam and out of 8,540 plants selected in the survey,only 192 trees were fully compliant with the criteria of selection of root wilt-tolerant palms.
Prof. John Kurakar
A project to grow coconut trees tolerant of root wilt disease in 100 hectares of Pathanamthitta district has been launched by the Christian Agency for Rural Development (CARD) Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) a farm science center of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for the district.
KVK project coordinator P.C. Robert said distribution of wilt-tolerant'Elite'palm seedlings to farmers of select panchats had been under way at the CARD-KVK centre at Thelliyoor near Thiruvalla from last week." The project is part of the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana(RKVY) scheme" he said. The root wilt disease was detected in 1982 in Kaviyoor and Kallooppara panchayats of Pathannamthitta. The disease was prevalent in Thiruvananthapuram,Kollam,Pathanamthitta, Alapuzha,Kottayam,Idukki, Ernakulam, and thrissur districts . He said the KVK had made extensive survey in root wilt affected areas to identify trees that were healthy, high yielding and not affected by wilt. Some coconut trees in Kaviyoor and Kalloopara panchayats were found to be resistant to the disease, If a palm of higher age showed no symptom of disease even in the midst of highly diseased palms,that too in the place of origin of the disease, it could be a disease-resistant palm. These palms were utilised to collect nuts to produce quality planting materials for large-scale distribution.The productivity of coconut tree was very low in Pathanamthitta (28nuts/palm/year mainly due to root wilt disease.More than 96.5 percent of the trees surveyed by KVK in seven major coconut growing panchayats of the district had this disease, he said.
According to Mr Robert, the area under coconut cultivation in the district is fast declining,mainly owing to low productivity,low price of the produce,high cost of production,and labour shortage( especially for Climbing) Steady increase inthe price of rubber had been tempting farmers to switch over to rubber plantation in many parts of the district,he said. Vinod Mathew,principal investigator of the the project, said the survey was carried out in the seven panchayats of Nedumpuram,Kaviyoor,Kalloopara,Kuttoor,Perigara,Kadapra and Niranam and out of 8,540 plants selected in the survey,only 192 trees were fully compliant with the criteria of selection of root wilt-tolerant palms.
Prof. John Kurakar
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