Date:15/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/15/stories/2008111557780300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Thanjavur

“Kera Keralam” for Tamil Nadu

G. Srinivasan

West Coast Tall variety released by Coconut Research Station, Veppankulam

— Photo: M. Srinath

Bodes well: West Coast Tall variety( Kera Keralam) Coconut Tree in the Coconut Research Station in Veppankulam in Pattukottai in Thanjavur District on Friday.

THANJAVUR: A new coconut variety, West Coast Tall (WCT) called “Kera Keralam” has been released by the Coconut Research Station at Veppankulam near Pattukottai in Thanjavur district for general cultivation in Tamil Nadu.

According to R. Vaithilingam, Professor and Head, N. Rekha and Ananda Priya, senior Research fellows of the station, WCT has been released as a national variety in 2008. The accession responds well to management and any increment level of management in terms of water and nutrient research with better productivity.

WCT is a tall coconut variety and is performing well in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal states.

It is found to be promising and adaptive to entire Tamil Nadu State and performed better in terms of nut yield, copra and oil content than the currently cultivated tall varieties like ECT and VPM three.

WCT variety is suitable for rain fed and irrigated areas of Tamil Nadu and it comes up well in all types of soil including sandy, sandy loam and red sandy loam with pH ranges from 6.0 to 8.0. It is moderately tolerant to drought and the pest and disease infestation is less. During lesser rainfall period WCT is not affected and its response to higher rainfall is found encouraging, while it is static in ECT.

Early bearer

West Coast Tall is an early bearer, comes to flowering in 58 months, against 72 months required for ECT and its expected longevity 80 years.

The mean nut yield during stabilised period is 159 nuts/palm/year and is capable of yielding upto 280 nuts.

Advantageous

The variety recorded the increased mean annual yield of 19.4 per cent over the existing ruling variety ECT (133 nuts/palm/year) and 48.8 per cent over VPM 3 (106.7 nuts per palm per year). WCT also recorded higher copra yield of 3.58 tonnes per hectare with an increase of 18.2 per cent over ECT (3.03 tonnes per hectare) and 16.6 per cent over VPM three (3.07 tonnes per hectare). The oil content of WCT is 67.8 per cent and yields about 2.43 tonnes of oil per hectare while it is two tonnes per hectare in ECT and 2.04 tonnes per hectare in VPM three.

WCT recorded the highest weight of dehusked nut (320.5 g), meat weight (200.2g), copra weight (138.6 g) and an oil content of 67.8 per cent as against the weight of dehusked nut (255 g), Meat weight (163.3), copra weight (118g), and oil content 66.2 per cent in ECT.

The copra yield of WCT is 18 kg per palm per year as against 15 kg per palm per year for ECT. A total of 7374 nuts of WCT are required for one tonne of copra while 7513 nuts for ECT and 6135 nuts for VPM three are required.