Kochi: The scenic beauty of tall swaying palms lining golden beaches of the southern coast could be a casualty in the long run as the coconut industry increasingly opts for dwarf palms due to an acute shortage of climbers and a shift in focus from traditional products of copra and coconut oil to newer ones such as packaged tender coconut water.

The rising popularity of tender coconut water as a health drink has in the last couple of years pushed demand for dwarf palms in southern states as some such varieties offer coconuts with high levels of water content.

In Kerala, an acute shortage of climbers and tappers is making many farmers go for dwarf palms, particularly after the state began to promote neera, a non-alcoholic drink tapped from coconut palms, as a nutritious health drink, which is giving farmers better returns than traditional coconut products.

Coconut Development Board (CDB) offi-cials said it is hard-pressed to meet the ris-ing demand for seedlings of dwarf and hybrid varieties and has now entrusted various coconut producer companies that manage lakhs of palms to grow and distribute dwarf seedlings.

“We have a huge demand especially from states like Tamil Nadu,” said M K Singh, manager at the board’s farm at Mandya in Karnataka.

The Mandya farm produces around three lakh seedlings while CDB’s Neriyamangalam farm in Kerala has an output of two lakh seedlings. The board has now asked 19 producer companies to produce four lakh seedlings.

While the tall palms can grow to a height of 40 feet in 20 years, the dwarf varieties will reach about 10 feet during the same time span and can give the same yield.

“The yield depends on the genetic quality of the seedling and the extent of maintenance

by the grower. It is not unusual to find tall or dwarf palms with good maintenance giving 300 nuts annually,” said T K Jose, chairman of CDB.

The board now plans to gradually increase the population of dwarf palms.

In Tamil Nadu, where coconut is cultivated in large tracts of land in areas like Pollachi, Coimbatore, Udumalpet, Kambam and Theni, there is already a marked preference for dwarf and hybrid palms.

“In Kerala at present only 1.75% of the total palms is dwarf,” Jose said. “In another 20 years we are aiming at 25% dwarf and 25% hybrid palms,” he said.

Joji M Thakkadi, CEO of Palakkad Coconut Producers Company Ltd, confirmed increas-ing demand for dwarf saplings. “We are tak-ing three months advance booking for seed-lings. It takes one year to grow a seedling. We see a lot of demand for hybrid varieties,” he said, adding that his company has already sold 30,000 saplings.

With coconut products like neera, tender coconut water, desiccated coconut powder, coconut milk and virgin oil gaining cur-rency, the modern farmer is less dependent on the traditional products like coconut oil and copra, which are subject to price fluctua-tions.

And what’s more, the farmer gets good in-come. For instance 50% of the price fetched by neera goes to the farmer, 25% to the tapper and the rest to the producer company. Neera sells for Rs 35 per 200 ml now. Virgin coconut oil is one of the most sought after commodity in exports.

Issuing of state-wide licences to tap neera in Kerala has necessitated the requirement of

large number of climber tappers.“We have 14 coconut federations compris-

ing numerous farmers under us. Each federa-tion has been issued licence to tap 1500 trees. This means one federation needs around 150 tappers,” said Babu M, chairman of Kuttiady Coconut Farmers Producer Company Ltd in Kozhikode.

Since the tappers are hard to get in Kerala, neera producers are importing labourers from other states. One tapper on an average can tap 10 trees a day. “He can easily make a minimum of Rs 20,000 a month. There are tappers who make even Rs 60,000,” Babu said.

There are several varieties of dwarf palms. The DxT hybrid is short in height and has ver-satile nuts while the Gangabondam variety is exclusively for tender coconut. Then there are varieties like Malayan and Chavakkad that are suitable for both tender coconut and neera.

The Coconut Development Board has start-ed a farm near Udumalpet in Tamil Nadu, where 80% of the seedlings are of dwarf va-riety.

As per latest CDB data, the total coconut pro-duction in the country is 21,665 million nuts. Tamil Nadu leads with 6,917 million, followed by Kerala with 5,968 million. Karnataka at 5,041 MILLION and Andhra Pradesh with 1,828 million occupy the next positions and together these four states account for 91% of the total production.

A BIT OF RAINFOREST IN YOUR CHOCOLATE

Honey, They’re Shrinking Coconut PalmsImaging: ANIRBAN BORA

Every time you bite into a bar of chocolate, you could well be taking a bite of the rainforests. This is more likely if the cacao, the main ingredient for cocoa and chocolate, is

from South America. Globally, the ap-petite for chocolates has been increas-ing, with rising incomes in emerging Asian economies such as India and China. In 2014, average consumption was pegged at 200 grams of chocolate in Asia, compared with 4.5 kg per per-son in Western Europe. Consumption in Asia, especially China, is slated to increase at 6% to 7% a year, while in Europe, consumption has been stable for a decade and is expected to expand 0.5% to 0.6% annually.

Demand for cacao is rising so fast that production in West Africa, which accounts for 70% of global output, has

been unable to keep up. Aging trees, crop diseases, extreme

weather and political insta-bility are among the factors hampering production. Even so, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire remain the top two cacao

producers.To meet the new demand, pro-

duction has expanded in South America. Peru’s cacao produc-tion has surged almost five-fold

from 1990 to 2013. This expan-sion is problematic because

the Amazon rainforests are being cleared for cacao pro-

duction.A recent study by

the Washington-ba sed World

R e s o u r c e s I n s t it ut e ,

“ H o w

Much Rainforest Is in That Chocolate Bar?” deals with the deforestation wrought by the expansion of cacao pro-duction in Peru by United Cacao Ltd.

“As cacao production accelerates in Peru, the Amazon rainforest is becom-ing a target for cultivable land, and at least one new cacao-production com-pany has already cleared thousands of hectares of carbon-rich, biodiverse forest,” said Nancy Harris, author of THE WRI’s study.

Harris stressed that such deforesta-tion is not new, it happened before in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria. What makes the expansion in the Amazon rainforest area different is the timing.

“This emerging threat to the Amazon comes at a time when growing public concerns about climate change have put consumer goods companies, that we all buy products from, under public pres-sure to increase transparency around and ultimately reduce the environmen-tal and social impacts of their supply chains,” explained Harris.

Is climate change affecting the simple pleasure of enjoying a bar of chocolate or a cup of hot cocoa? Well, it is both being affected by climate change, and effecting climate change.

GJ Anim-Kwapong and EB Frimpong of the Cocoa Reaserch Institute of Ghana said that “climate change could also alter stages and rates of

development of cocoa pests and pathogens, modify host resistance and result in changes in the physiology of host-pathogen/pests interaction.”

On the other hand, the deforestation that has accompanied ca-cao production has meant more carbon dioxide is being pro-

duced, speeding the warming of the atmosphere. The WRI study analysed the 2,000 hectares of rainforest cleared by United Cacao in Peru and estimated that sourcing beans from the compa-ny’s plantations would almost double the carbon footprint of milk chocolate

to 6.8g of carbon dioxide per gram.This is over and above life-cycle emis-

sions—that is carbon dioxide from ingredients, production process and packaging. Clearing the 2,000 hectares of forests will add more than 660,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmos-phere, roughly equal to the emissions produced by driving a car around the earth about 60,000 times. The need to tackle climate change by reducing the level of carbon dioxide in the air to slow down global warming doesn’t have to play spoiler to the bar of chocolate. It only calls for changing the manner in which cacao farming is done.

Cacao trees grow in humid, tropical climates with regular rains and a short dry season. Most cacao production is concentrated within 10 degrees north and south of the equator, a narrow geographical band from where rising demand will have to be met. Harris said cacao expansion presents a major op-portunity for agriculture-driven res-toration. “Planting cacao on degraded lands could support climate change mitigation by avoiding emissions as-sociated with deforestation. Better monitoring technology can help catch unsustainable activity,” she said.

Shade planting is another option. Instead of clearing forests, cacao can be planted within the natural tree cover. Where the natural forest or tree cover has been removed, experts sug-gest planting fruit and other trees to provide shade.

Besides environmental benefits from the return of organic matter to the soil and lower use of chemicals since the

absence of weeds would discourage pests, it provides farmers with addi-tional revenue streams. Experts say this is the way cacao grows in the wild in West Africa — under taller trees that provide natural protection from the scorching sun.

Brazil, which began to lose its position as a leading cacao producer in the 1990s, is reviving its traditional practice of shade planting in southern Bahia, the principal cocoa-growing re-gion. A study led by Götz Schroth of the Rainforest Alliance, an envi-ronmental group, found that the

traditional practice improved yields and boosted the carbon storage capacity of cacao plantations, bringing down emissions.

Harris says “And what-ever else can be done to reduce emissions from chocolates, step one is don’t deforest, be-cause those emis-sions i mpact a product’s carbon footprint for a very long time.”

The Amazon rainforests are being cleared to cultivate cacao, a key ingredient for making chocolate. While such deforestation contributes to climate change, it doesn’t have to be that way – the solution may lie in simply changing the way in which cacao is grown. Urmi A Goswami reports.

Clearing the 2,000 hectares of forests will add more than 660,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, roughly equal to the emissions produced by driving a car around the earth about 60,000 times

1 Cote d’Ivoire 1,488,9922 Ghana 835,466

3 Indonesia 777,500

4 Nigeria 367,000

5 Cameroon 275,000

6 Brazil 256,186

7 Ecuador 128,446

8 Mexico 82,000

9 Peru 71,175

10 Dominican Republic 68,021Source: FAO/International Cocoa Organization/WRI

Cacao productionRank, Country & Production in 2013 (tonnes)

West Coast Tall Malayan Orange Dwarf Malayan Green DwarfChoughat Orange Dwarf Choughat Green Dwarf Gangabondam Kalpasree KalpasamrudhiKalpasankaraMalayan Yellow Dwarf DxT

Consump-tion in Asia, is slated to increase at 6% to 7% a year, while in Europe it is expected to expand 0.5% to 0.6% annually

Krishna Kumar

12 CultivationThe Economic Times, New Delhi, Saturday, 22 August 2015