Coconut Production Drops in Kerala

Kerala, a major coconut producing State in India, has seen falling coconut production, reports The Hindu last week on November 02.  Agriculture Minister P. Prasad in an Assembly last week said coconut production in the State has fallen from 5,873 million units in 2015-2016 to 4,814 million units in 2019-2020.  While there is a fall in production, he said the situation is not alarming. 
Decline in production is due to the reduction in area under coconut cultivation, which came down from 790,233 hectares in 2015-2016 to 760,775 hectares in 2019-2020.  He attributed the reduction in area to conversion of area previously under coconut cultivation for house construction and other non-agriculture purposes.  The outbreak of diseases affecting coconut trees also has reduced coconut production as did non-availability of workers and lack of proper irrigation.
He said the government has been taking various steps including ways to control diseases and scientific upkeep of trees to increase production. The Keragramam project has proved to be successful with the increase in production to 10,379 coconuts from a hectare of land, in areas where it was implemented. An amount of    50 lakh has been set aside in the current financial year to control diseases affecting coconut trees.