Coconut

Integrated Crop Management

The optimum manurial and cultural requirements for coconut palm have been recommended based on agronomic trials. The fertilizer recommendation for the adult bearing coconut palm includes 500g N, 320 g P₂O₅ and 1200 g K₂O/palm/year in two split doses. Rock phosphate is recommended as ideal source of P for coconut palms.
Studies on rationalization of P application to coconut palms indicated that application of P could be skipped if soil test values are more than 20 ppm.
Irrigating coconut palms through drip system with 32 litres of water/palm/day has been found to be advantageous to save water.
Palm based farming systems and cropping models with compatible crop combinations for effective utilization of solar radiation and soil resources available in the interspaces in coconut gardens. In the coconut based High Density Multi Species Cropping System (HDMCS) involving a crop combination of pineapple, banana, clove and nutmeg, sustained higher level of productivity with the application of lower dose of fertilizers than the recommended dose and the recycling of crop residues. Mixed farming system including coconut, dairy, poultry, rabbitry, sericulture and pisciculture has been successfully demonstrated in coconut.
A low cost technology for the large scale production of vermicompost from coconut plantation wastes has been standardized with a large, pigmented, epigamic local earthworm species.
Nitrogen fixed by symbiotic cover legume, Calopogonium mucunoides/Mimosa invisa-Rhizobium association substituted fifty per cent of the fertilizer nitrogen requirement of coconut palm when grown as green manures in basins.
Leaf rot disease which appears superimposed on root (wilt) affected palms can be controlled by i) pouring of 300 ml of fungicidal solution containing 2 ml of Contaf 5 % EC or 3 g Indofil M45 in the spindle well after removing the rotten portions in the spindle and two to three adjoining leaves and ii) application of 20 g phorate 10G mixed with 200 g fine sand around the base of the spindle.
Stem bleeding disease of coconut caused by a fungus, Theilaviopsis paradoxa can be effectively controlled by chiseling and removing the infected bark and application of calixin (5%) followed by coal tar and root feeding with calixin (5%). Providing irrigation in summer, drainage in rains and application of neemcake @5kg per palm are also recommended for the management of the disease.
Phytosanitation, taking isolation trenches around the affected palm, root feeding with systemic fungicides like calixin (2ml/100ml), soil drenching with calixin 0.1% and application of neem cake@ 5 kg /palm/year are effective in controlling basal stem rot disease of coconut.
Crown choking of coconut caused by boron deficiency can be controlled by soil application of Borax @ 50-75g/palm twice a year in root (wilt) free zones and 300 g Borax in root (wilt) affected areas.
Rhinoceros beetle of coconut can be controlled by IPM techniques including hooking the beetle, leaf axil filling with sevidol (25g) and fine sand (200g) or naphthalene balls @ 12g/palm and releasing baculovirus infected beetles. Metarrhizhium anisopliae, a fungus is also identified as an effective bio control agent against rhinoceros beetle.
Leaf eating caterpillar (Opisina arenosella) of coconut can be controlled by spraying dichlorvos (0.02%) on the foliage after removing the severely affected one or two lower fronds and subsequent release of parasitoids after 15 days of spraying.
Plant and field sanitation, curative treatment with 1% carbaryl or 0.1% endosulfan, use of pheromone traps and attractants are recommended as the IPM technologies against red palm weevil of coconut.

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Tamilnadu

Coconut

About Coconut

History

Morphology and Growth

Coconut Management

Services Overview

The key services offered by Ikisan are:

System study, design and development of IT enabled solutions and services for the agri sector.

Execution of rural IT enabled projects on BOT/BOOT/Turnkey basis.

Development, Customization and Deployment of Ikisan's IPR protected software applications.

Providing support services and best management practices for augmenting the marketing development efforts of the groups agricultural input companies (NFCL and NACL).

Development and Dissemination of best practice and information though a unique multi lingual knowledge website for the agri sector.

Some of the key customers/partners that benefit significantly from our work include are Electronics Corporation of India Ltd, State Agricultural Marketing Boards, Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture, Tamilnadu, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Motorola Mobility (GOOGLE) etc.

As highlighted earlier Ikisan provides significant support to the market development and marketing efforts of NFCL and NACL by providing best practices and information across the agricultural input value chain - weather, soil, seeds, fertilizers, water, pesticides, output prices etc. that have enabled the companies to develop deep customer relationships and in turn enable them to grow above market growth rates. Recently example in fertilizers includes the development of Customized Fertilizer Grades (for NFCL across India that are crop and location specific have not only reduced the current consumption of fertilizers of farmers but have significantly enhanced crop yields and farmer incomes) that are expected to add significant revenues to the company.

Currently, agriculture value chain is driven by technical expertise. However, there is a lack of adequate Management knowledge and skills amongst the professionals. Therefore, Ikisan and XLRI, Jamshedpur have jointly developed an Agri Business Management Program for Agri-professionals and students. Ikisan provides the domain expertise while XLRI provides pedagogy. This program is a combination of virtual learning and campus based module at XLRI, Jamshedpur. This program has been highly appreciated.

Intellectual Property Rights for many software applications such as Field Manager, Vyapar, Mandi, Quick Solutions Systems, Management Time Table, Agri Information System and Agrecommerz belong to Ikisan. A significant recent development in this area is the introduction of Weather Based Crop Insurance. This entails setting up of Automatic Weather Stations, which provide dynamic village-level data essential for settlement of weather based insurance claims.