Coconut is one of the traditional, prominent perennial crops associated with heritage, culture and economy of India for the last 3000 years. It is preferred and cultivated by all the categories of farmers irrespective of their land holding and economic and social status. Moreover coconut is closely coupled with the daily foodstuff of millions of people around the world. Amidst huge production and demand, coconut suffers with the bottlenecks of low level of production technology, high degree of pest and disease, land fragmentation, obsolete irrigation system, conventional harvesting, poor value addition facilities, underprivileged institutional arrangements in marketing, unstabilized price, lack of proper financing institutions etc.,
This current edition traces the evolution of coconut farming, describes botanical biology, variety of coconut trees, proper pest and disease control, nutritional and health aspects of coconut, medicinal and industrial use of coconuts and its by-products and trends in coconut area and production in world, India and Tamil Nadu. Moreover it examines the production and marketing practices of coconut farmers and their perception about the present market functionaries, marketing practices of market functionaries and it offers suggestions to surmount the existing marketing problems.
The book presents the essential aspects of coconut production and marketing with simplicity and definitely this book could be a sense of stimulus and guidance to millions of present and prospective coconut growers for their continuous association with coconut farming. |
