Agriculture Minister Ravi Naik said that the Directorate of Agriculture would soon open an agriculture college at Old Goa and set up a coconut development corporation for the benefit of farmers, who could fetch good prices for their coconuts.
It must be said that there is an acute shortage of coconut pluckers (padekars) in the state. In Goa, coconut plucking skills were traditionally handed down from father to son.
It may be recalled that the Goa government initiated a biannual programme in 2013 to train young men to pluck coconuts. Successful candidates are recruited by the State, and farmers can approach the government to avail of their services.
However, the demand for the pluckers’ services is so high that they are unable to meet it with the existing supply of trained men. The few available pluckers charge exorbitant fees and also take coconuts as a part of the payment.
Given the shortage of pluckers, farmers are increasingly hesitant to grow new crops. The government needs to train more coconut- pluckers so that they are easily available to those Goans who have a vast number of coconut trees. The fees these pluckers charge for climbing a coconut tree also needs to be regulated.
