Sources from Thrissur sources have stated that Kerala Agricultural University (KAU)’s Agricultural Research Station (ARS) at Mannuthy has come up with a solution to help farmers harvest coconuts and a coconut cradle, designed by the KAU, can collect and store coconuts at crown itself and the farmers often find it difficult to get coconut climbers in time as they are few in number.
It is stated that the coconut cradle has an octagon-shaped collection basket, two pulleys with bracket that fixes the cradle to the coconut palm and a roller assembly to win the plastic rope and the collection basket is 2.5 m in diameter and 75 cm depth. It is made up of 50 mm x 50 mm and 3.17 mm thick GI wire mesh and has capacity to hold 50 coconuts.
Meanwhile the drop down end of the rope is tied to the roller fixed at the base of the palm, when the basket is full, it can be brought down by unwinding the roller and nuts can be collected and thereafter the basket can be lifted to the top by winding the roller rope.
It is stated that this device is now priced at approximately Rs.9,000 and it was developed by the R&D team at ARS, Mannuthy and those interested may contact Dr. Jaikumaran on 9447530673.
