Rs10-lakh reward to design coconut plucking machine!

Padelis to bring down coconuts from their tall palms are in short supply not just in Goa. Kerala is facing an even greater problem finding coconut pluckers. A falling birth rate, high rates of migration and rising school attendance has led to a lack of young men willing to make the dangerous climb up the towering coconut palms in Kerala, the most productive of the coconut-producing states in India. They are opting for safer, less arduous and more 'prestigious' professions.

So the state's Industry Ministry is offering a cash prize of Rs10 lakh – more than a professional coconut harvester can earn in a decade – to whoever invents the first machine capable of doing the job. India grows 1,600 crore coconuts a year, according to the Coconut Development Board, and they must be harvested.

In Kerala, coconut harvesting was traditionally carried out by members of the backward Paravan community. "But young people from the communityare just not interested in becoming coconut harvesters these days," says Kerala Principal Secretary for Industries T Balakrishnan.

Other coconut-growing states, including Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, also face severe climber shortages. Neglected, coconut palms tend to become diseased, resulting in lower yields that threaten farmers' livelihoods.

Programmes offering young men training and insurance if they enter the profession have failed to find takers. "The occupational risk and the arduous labour involved turn people off," says Coconut Development Board Chairman Minnie Mathew.

The competition to invent a mechanical substitute for human harvesters is open to all, including international entrants, but the rules are demanding. The winning machine must be operated from the ground, must be capable of gathering nuts at heights of 30 metres and must be able to trim palm fronds and clean the bushy head of the tree to prevent disease. It will also have to be cheap to build and run, and be robust and easy to transport.

How to gather the harvest without risking life and limb is a puzzle that has exercised the finest minds in the coconut industry. In Thailand and Malaysia, pigtailed macaques, a type of monkey, are trained to gather the fruit. Elsewhere, hydraulic platforms are used to lift harvesters.

But, says Balakrishnan, previous experiments in Kerala – from dwarf varieties to long sticks to knock the nuts off the palms – have proven unsatisfactory. "We are looking for a device that will enable people to pluck the nuts without having to climb; ideally, one that will allow even women and the elderly to harvest the nuts from the ground," he explains.
The competition opens officially at the end of September and will run for six months. If a workable solution is found, the Kerala state government will help the inventor to set up a factory to supply the winning device to the national and international coconut industry.