Integrated farming system in coconut groves
By Our Agriculture Correspondent
Diverse enterprises such as dairying, poultry farming and aquaculture can be ideally integrated in coconut groves.
INTEGRATED FARMING system with diversified farming enterprises can be ideally taken up in coconut groves.
It involves cultivation of shade tolerant fodder crops in the interspaces of coconut and integrating animal enterprises such as dairy, poultry, duck rearing and aquaculture, and by effectively recycling all the organic residues, the farming system would prove to be economically rewarding for the farmers, said Dr. R. Dhanapal, Senior Scientist at the Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI), Kasaragod in Kerala.
"Fodder grasses such as hybrid Napier, Guinea grass and Guatemala grass can yield about 50 to 60 tonnes of fodder per hectare in a year under coconut shade, and it will be sufficient to maintain five crossbred milch cows.
Leguminous crops such as Brazilian Lucerne, cowpea and Pueraria also do well in the shade of coconuts. Besides, coconut can support profitable sericulture also," explained Dr. Dhanapal.
In maidan areas of Karnataka, where coconut palms are planted at a wider spacing of 9 m by 9 m or more, farmers have taken up mulberry cultivation and silkworm rearing in a big way.
By integrating sericulture with coconut cultivation, substantial increase in the net income of the farmers has been realized.
In addition, it generated more job opportunities in the rural areas, according to him.
Coconut is predominantly cultivated in small and marginal holdings. Coconut growers should integrate a number of other profitable crops to maximise the efficiency of the farm. Since it is a wide-spaced crop, with its active root zone confined to only 25 per cent of the available area, a host of other crops can be grown as subsidiary crops in the coconut groves.
The groves also allow for multi-tier, multi-cropping system, which can contribute to sizeable increase in the farm income.
As intercrops in the coconut groves, only those that can tolerate shade should be selected for cultivation.
The intercrops should be more tolerant to pests and diseases, and should have efficient root system to exploit different soil horizons in the field.
They should not grow taller than the coconut tree, and they should not have an economic life longer than the main crop.
They should not require harvesting or other operations that would damage the main crop or induce soil erosion or damage soil structure, according to Dr. Dhanapal.
In the initial years of establishment, a wide variety of crops such as tuber crops, spices, cereals and millets, vegetables, pulses, oilseeds, banana, pineapple and a number of promising flower crops can be grown as intercrops.
As the coconut trees grow taller, it allows for multi-tier cropping system.
Coconut groves, thus lend themselves to high density, multi-species cropping system, and can help in maximizing the farm returns.
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