Coconut Growers and their Endless Woes

Harvesting coconuts from trees that are sometimes taller than 30 feet needs expert coconut pluckers. Coconuts  need to be plucked every 45 days.  Not plucking them would mean that they would fall down and this needs to be avoided.  Falling from such a height could be harmful if they fall on anyone.

Coconut pluckers are hard to come by. Gone are the days when they used to knock at doors for work but now even after repeated phone calls – yes phone calls – as all of them have mobiles. I saw one guy the other day talking to someone on the phone while he was up on the coconut tree. That indeed was a rare sight.

The rates for plucking  have gone ten fold in that there are situations when even if they pluck just one coconut they get paid for that service. On an average they earn atleast 50% of the total yield. The coconut grove owners have also to feed the trees, with manure every year. They have to work on the soil and this is labour intensive. Watering has to be done on a regular basis.

The market is down and so  the rate at which coconuts are sold does not cover even the cost of maintaining the trees. What we have in our compound is more for adding greenery around as the yield does not even cover the cost of maintaining these coconut trees. We do get enough for our own consumption though.

Some coconut trees can be harmful if they are grown close to houses as heavy breeze can sometimes uproot them destroying the houses nearby in which case they need to be brought down. Cutting them down is also quite expensive.

My neighbour just told me she was not going to feed her tress as she feels it is a dead loss.

But I will feed my coconut trees. They are like children.

I do not suppose we starve our kids if they do not yield results.