Agrotechnology

Status and innovation in coconut climbing- A summary

International Conference on Agricultural & Horticultural Sciences

September 14-15, 2012 Hyderabad International Convention Centre, India

H L Kushwaha, Dushyant Singh and V. K. Bhargav

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Agrotechnol

Abstract:

The coconut plant is known as Kalpavriksha, in the humid tropical coastlands all over the world mainly in south Asian coun - tries because of its various merits. The coconut is well-known in the food, daily uses, employment and trade economies of the people habitant of these regions. Climbing the coconut tree is a very difficult tedious due to tallness of the plant. For coconut harvesting and other purposes climbing up to the crown of the palm is required at least six to twelve times or even more in a year. A few days back local climbers were available for harvesting and other activities at the crown of the coconut palms. Presently the population of these climbers is vanishing and not available even at higher wages. Visualizing the above problem, scientist/ researcher/ innovators has worked to provide a solution for this acute problem. Various types of climbing devices such as tractor operated, self-propelled, robotic and manually operated have been developed but most of them are in laboratory level, only a few are adopted by the farmers. Primary testing of these devices indicate that the efficiency of traditional climbers without any device is much higher than with devices. Government is trying very hard to fill the gap of availability of climbers by providing training and other necessary gadgets to the local youths to maintain their interest towards this job.

Biography :

H.L. Kushwaha was did his Doctor of Agril. Engg. from IARI, New Delhi. He joined ICAR as Scientist in 2002 at CAZRI, Jodhpur and subsequently selected to Senior Scientist at CIAE, Bhopal in the year 2010. Till date he is continuing on the same post. He was awarded Indo-US Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science & Technology Fellow Program as part of Indo-US Agricultural Knowledge Initiative (AKI) and visited University of Missouri, Columbia (MO), USA. He has received Aryabhatta Samman by Vigyan Bharti (Swadeshi Science Movement of India), New Delhi. He has worked on a special assignment on Coconut harvesting at CPCRI, Kasaragod. He has published about 25 research papers/popular articles/chapters in books, etc. Presently, he is actively engaged in the development of farm machines/equipment, tools for agriculture.