Coconut cultivation making small farmers cheerful

Abstract

Coconut is committed to the land for many years. Coconut palms start giving
return only after 5-7 years. It is mostly a crop of small farmers in India, the
average size of a land holding being 0.22 ha. More than 90% of five million
coconut holdings in our country are less than one ha in size. Due to long
pre-bearing period, occurrence of pests and diseases and fluctuating market
prices apart from small size of holdings, its crop has failed to generate
sufficient income to sustain even the small families. The farm yields under
mono cropping system in traditional coconut-growing states in India, are
poor and farmers are under employed spending only 100 and 120 mandays,
under rainfed and irrigated systems of cultivation, respectively. Thus,
diversifying the cropping system including more crops per unit area may be
necessary to sustain the small and marginal coconut farm families.