Why key to coconut cultivation today is sustainability, not productivity

The 2026-27 Union budget announced a ‘Coconut Promotion Scheme’ with the primary aim of improving productivity by rejuvenating old, non-productive gardens with high yielding coconut varieties and establishing new plantations along the coast. The farming community has welcomed the announcement.

The Coconut Development Board (CDB) is already implementing a similar scheme, which has helped rejuvenate old gardens and expanded cultivation into non-traditional areas, including in parts of Gujarat, Assam, and other non-peninsular regions — sufficient to partially offset the widespread destruction of coconut palms in Kerala and Tamil Nadu by disease.

Heat and disease

India is the world’s largest producer and consumer of coconuts. The domestic prices of coconut and tender coconut remain far higher than prevailing international prices even though the productivity per palm in India is already higher than in Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Indonesia. In places like Anaimalai in Tamil Nadu, dwarf x tall hybrid palms regularly produce 250-300 tender coconuts per tree.

Today, climate change and disease are greater concerns than productivity. Research by the Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI) has projected that temperatures in regions with plantations may rise by 1.6-2.1°C by 2050 and up to 3.2 °C by 2070. Higher temperature without a significant change in the rainfall levels will increase the vapour pressure deficit and intensify drought stress.

Studies have also found that large parts of interior peninsular India, including parts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, along with the south interior region of Tamil Nadu and the east coasts could become less suitable for coconut cultivation in the coming decades as a result.

Expanded scope

The CPCRI has found that coconut can still be cultivated along the Western Ghats belt in Kerala, coastal Karnataka, and western Tamil Nadu even during the high temperature regimes. However, these regions are beset by root wilt disease; in Alappuzha and Pollachi districts, the coconut landscape has been completely devastated.

Therefore, the new ‘Coconut Promotion Scheme’ must not be limited to distributing high-yield seedlings but must prioritise the development and mass multiplication of climate-resilient varieties for farms along the east coast and in peninsular regions, and wilt-tolerant varieties for the traditional coconut-growing regions along the west coast.

Large tracts of land vested with the State horticulture departments and universities can be used to establish mother palm gardens. Similarly, the state should consider strengthening research in institutions like the CPCRI and the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, so that they can identify and breed heat-tolerant, drought-resilient, and disease-resistant genotypes. Farmer producer organisations (FPOs), cooperatives, and credible private nurseries should also be enabled to mass-produce these resilient seedlings.

The aspect of the Scheme to enhance productivity entails distributing free or subsidised inputs. Many such schemes often distribute biological inputs, microbial formulations, micro-nutrients, etc. But in practice, they are often substandard or poorly stored, reducing the microbial viability. Instead, the state should consider direct benefit transfers, since farmers must be trusted to decide whether they need irrigation systems, soil amendments, labour for rejuvenation or other improvements.

Failed take-off

The third area that merits a serious rethink is adding value. In many coconut-growing regions today, production barely meets strong domestic demand for culinary purposes. The domestic price of coconut has increased 3x since 2024. Encouraging FPOs to invest in processing units during lean supply periods without also assuring them of marketing channels will only expose them to financial risk. The equipment already supplied under such schemes often lies idle.

The ‘Cluster Development Programme’ implemented by the National Horticulture Board (NHB) has an outlay of about Rs 150 crore for three verticals: production, value addition, and marketing. However, the programme didn’t take off because its high investment barriers prevented FPOs and cooperatives from being meaningful participants as implementing agencies. Even after repeated stakeholder consultations and deadline extensions, private firms were not interested in being the implementing agencies.

The CDB is already implementing schemes that provide a 25% capital subsidy to the industry involved in coconut value addition, so there’s no reason for them to subscribe to the same variant of the scheme implemented by the NHB, that too with numerous compliance requirements, including  inspection and auditing regulations. The subsidy percentage also varies across the verticals, confusing farmers and investors alike.

The banana cluster in southern Tamil Nadu is another example of an enterprise that remains largely on paper.

Smaller but better

The government must evaluate these experiences in good faith, including by adopting fool-proof metrics to measure the success of schemes rather than resorting to official reports and stage-managed interactions with farmers.

Large, centrally designed clusters may not be the answer. Instead, smaller pilot models anchored in a genuine cooperative spirit with hand-holding — e.g. marketing partnerships with experienced FMCG players like Amul or ITC — could be tested in locations such as Tiptur (which grows ball copra), Anaimalai (tender coconuts), and Pollachi (coconut oil). Smaller but better designed projects can yield more useful lessons as well.

Dovetailing the ‘Coconut Promotion Scheme’ with the ‘Cluster Development Programme’ could also eventually help fund the multiplication of better coconut saplings.

Real crises

Farmers rarely have the institutional voice that large industries possess. Policies are often drafted based on official briefings rather than ground realities. A simple visit to affected areas like Alappuzha and Pollachi will reveal that root wilt disease is destroying livelihoods and that climate stress is no longer theoretical.

The ‘Coconut Promotion Scheme’ is an opportunity to study and develop climate-resilient and disease-resistant coconut varieties, and to acknowledge that enhancing productivity alone won’t secure the future. Climate resilience, wilt resistance, direct trust in farmers, and honest evaluation of past failures must guide implementation.

If these principles are adopted in full spirit, the scheme can protect India’s leadership in coconut cultivation for decades. If not, however, it will be yet another well-intentioned allocation that doesn’t address the real crises facing coconut cultivators.

R. Ranjit Kumar is managing director, Pollachi Nutmeg Farmer Producer Company, and ICAR-IARI Innovative Farmer Awardee.

Published – March 02, 2026 07:15 am IST