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Considering the problems being faced by farmers due to the scarcity of labour in arecanut plantations, the Kasaragod-based Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI) has developed dwarf varieties of arecanut plants.
P Chowdappa, Director of CPCRI, said that the institute has developed two dwarf varieties – VITLAH-1 and VITLAH-2 – for the benefit of farmers.
The development of dwarf varieties assumes significance as growers are facing a scarcity of labourers to harvest arecanut from plants and to spray a prophylatic solution to control fruit rot during the monsoon months.
These tasks require skilled manpower to climb the trees and carry out operations.
While the height of normal tall plants is over 10 metres, the dwarf plants reach a height of around 4 metres.
He said that the yield from the dwarf plants will be in the range of 2 kg a plant compared to around 3 kg from the normal tall plants.
He added that around 800 dwarf plants can be grown on an acre of land as against around 600 tall plants. The dwarf varieties will start yielding from the fourth year.
CPCRI has transferred the technology to propagate this dwarf varieties to a Tamil Nadu-based company. The company is likely to come out with commercial production of the dwarf plants from 2019, he said.
Considering the need to mechanise the process of spraying prophylatic solution in arecanut plantations, CPCRI has experimented with two prototypes — a tractor-mounted sprayer and a drone — this year.
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