Port Blair, Mar 28: Coconut is the mainstay crop of the Nicobarese tribe of the Bay islands. To support these tribal farmers with superior technologies on drudgery reducing machineries, ICAR-CIARI, Port Blair organized a demonstration and distribution programme at the Harminder Bay village of Little Andaman Island. Under the All India Coordinated Research Project on Palms of the Institute, Dr. Ajit Waman, Principal Investigator of the project, carried out demonstrations on use of coconut climbing devices for harvesting of coconut from palms and machinery for dehusking the mature coconuts. Local youth took active participation in the demonstration and they agreed the ease of operation of the devices for routine works.
Under the Scheduled Tribe Component scheme of the Institute, these devices were distributed to about 45 tribal farmers of the village. Smt. Kitty Hilton, First Headman and Mr. N. Festus, Secretary, Tribal Council, Harminder Bay appreciated the efforts of ICAR-CIARI in improving the livelihood of tribal community. They also expressed happiness over the usefulness of the climbing devices distributed during last year by the Institute. The tribal farmers felt improvement of efficiency in coconut cultivation and processing activities through use of drudgery reducing machineries. The whole program was planned under the supervision of Dr. B.A. Gerard, HoD (Horticulture & Forestry) and Dr. A. Kundu, Director, ICAR-CIARI.
