With scanty rainfall, and the subsequent crop loss, becoming a challenge for farmers for six straight years, efforts have been initiated in the district to expand the area for coconut cultivation.

The district, which reportedly has Asia’s largest coconut market on the APMC premises in Maddur, has been grappling with severe drought since 2012.

The failure of crops, such as paddy and sugarcane, owing to the lack of water every summer had resulted in the many farmers committing suicide. To encourage farmers to take up coconut cultivation instead of water-intensive paddy and sugarcane, the Horticulture Department has planned to increase the coconut cultivation area.

A large number of coconut seedlings have been raised at different government farms in the district and 1,65,866 of them are ready for transplanting and are available for sale.

There are plans to raise at least 2 lakh more seedlings by 2020, said senior officials at the department.

The Government Fruits and Horticulture Centre at KRS has a stock of 26,511 well-grown seedlings.

The plants are also available for sale at Mandya farm (13,662 seedlings), Pura (32,367), Dudda (11,939), Poorigali (16,500), Maddur (6,735), Mallasandra Kaval (10,494), Javaranahalli (13,959), Halebidu (8,403), Srirangapatna (3,678), Gamanahalli (10,050) and Murukanahalli farm (11,550 seedlings), officials told The Hindu. There are many private nurseries in the district, but the farmers prefer to buy seedlings from government nurseries as they are grown in a scientific method, an assistant director at the department said.

The carefully selected healthy nuts will be used to raise seedlings. Experts at the VC Farm Zonal Agricultural Research Station will identify the nuts and they will also help the department in getting healthy nuts from progressive farmers for raising seedlings, another officer said. Nearly 4 lakh coconut trees were affected owing to black-headed caterpillar infestation and beetles in the district since 2012. Thus, there are great demands for quality seedlings from the farmers.

The traditional breed ‘Tiptur Tall’ and the hybrid ‘TxD’ (Tall x Dwarf) are available at the farms. Even growers from Mysuru, Ramanagaram, Hassan and Tumakuru are buying the seedlings.

The price of Tiptur Tall is ₹52 a seedling, while TxD is being sold at a cost of ₹150. Around 40% to 100% subsidy is available and the growers can obtain it by submitting RTC (Rights, Tenancy and Crops), Aadhaar cards and other documents at the nearby horticulture department offices.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Karnataka / by M.T. Shiva Kumar / Mandya – June 06th, 2018