Panji, Sep 13 (Herald): Swaying palms along idyllic beaches, synonymous with Goa, may soon be a thing of the past with the Agriculture Department reporting that farmers are no more planting coconut trees extensively, for a host of reasons. 

With the area under cultivation remaining stagnant at around 25,000 hectares over the last decade or so, production too remained the same, as both farmers as well as agriculture officers say that shrinking groves as well as lack of pluckers are the cause of the decline. 

 “People who have few coconut trees, don’t harvest the crop because coconut pluckers aren’t available. And if they come, they charge a fee that is so exorbitant that it is more than the value of the coconuts they pluck,” Orlando Rodrigues, Managing Director of Goa State Horticulture Corporation has said.
“People are not planting coconut trees nor are they maintaining the groves. God forbid, soon a day may come when Goa may not have coconut trees,” Rodrigues said. 

The area under coconut cultivation was 25,025 hectares, in 2000-01, with a production of 125.12 million nuts. In 2011-2012 there were 25,730 hectares under cultivation with a production of 129.28 million nuts.

Coconut trees planted on fragmented lands or in courtyards or backyards of traditional Goan houses, given that periodically plucking them is uneconomical, serve only for ornamental purpose. Coconut groves which were innumerous all along the coast are also making way for hospitality establishments as the state reaps the benefits of the tourism industry. 

 “Besides increased fragmentation of landholdings owing in part to the Tenancy Act as well as the growth of families has led to uneconomical patches of coconut groves which from a bird’s eye view look like a contiguous sea of coconut trees,” Bosu D’Costa, a coconut farmer said adding that today hotels with immaculate lawns stand where coconut groves once stood.  

The lack of adoption of new high yielding varieties of coconut trees is also another indicator that enthusiasm to take up coconut farming is missing.

The Goa State Horticulture Corporation (GSHC) has now floated a scheme to avail of coconut pluckers in a bid to arrest the gradual decline of coconut plantations in the state.  

Farmers interested in having their trees plucked will have to contact the taluka agriculture office and register themselves with supervisors posted at the taluka offices. They will have to provide their address, phone number, approximate date of plucking and number of trees to be plucked. Based on the availability of pluckers, the supervisor will telephonically intimate the date and time at which the plucker may be collected.

Present rates for coconut plucking are Rs 50 per tree up to 5 trees: Rs 300 for 6 to 15 trees and Rs 600 for a full day plucking of about 30 trees (or 5 hours). Besides the above cash payment, the plucker will have to be given five coconuts for a half day plucking and 10 coconuts for a day’s plucking.

 “The scheme is working well, it is picking up in the state as more and more people realise the efficacy of these pluckers. The scheme we have drawn is meant to be self-sustaining. The salaries of the pluckers will be paid from the proceeds of plucking,” Rodrigues said adding that they have employed traditional pluckers who today are a dying breed as well as those pluckers trained to use the climbing machine. 

Coconut growers will have to pick up the pluckers from the sub office at 9 am and drop them back after the plucking is over. Last year the state government announced an increase in the support price of Rs 8 per coconut for farmers to encourage farming.