Areca nut farmers in Dakshina Kannada district are facing labour problems in order to pluck the areca nut crop from the top of the tree.
As both works of spraying pesticide and harvesting the crop happens simultaneously, labour shortage is felt by the farmers.
Bhaskar, a young agriculturist of Charvaka in Kadaba taluk, has invented an equipment that helps him to climb the areca nut tree by himself. The equipment is very simple and can be used by men as well as women. It is handy for spraying the pesticide to the crop as well as harvesting it from the tree.
This tree cycle is made of iron rods. One can climb the tree by locking the equipment to the arecanut tree. This equipment can be used with both hands and legs.
Bhaskar gave up studies after fifth standard due to various reasons and took up agriculture. As he also owns areca nut farm, he is aware of labour shortage.
Usually the labourers prefer large scale farmers as they get more income and evade going to small farmers like Bhaskar. This results in loss of crop also for the small farmer as the pesticide is not sprayed on time.
Bhaskar began using this equipment three years ago, but did many modifications and now successfully using the same for spraying the pesticide and removing the crop from the tree.
Bhaskar has sold the equipment to many areca nut farmers at a cost of Rs 6,500 per piece. He trains the farmer at his farm itself before handing over the equipment.
Bhaskar said that the present equipment can be used to climb only areca nut and he will develop it so that it can be used for climbing coconut trees also.
dw