#agro-climatic

Hybrid seedlings are becoming an increasingly important factor for coconut farmers in India. Not only do they provide higher yields and better protection from pests, they can be tailored to the agro-climatic conditions of each plantation’s environment, saving farmers substantial costs.

According to Dr. P. M. Kumaran – Head of the Crop Improvement division, Central Plantation Crops Research Institute – farmers should take special precaution regarding the quality of the planting material especially when they opt for the cultivation of hybrids. When done currently, hybrids can produce between 21 and 30 kilos of copra from a single tree.

Hybrids show earliness in flowering, and give higher yield of nuts, copra and oil when compared to their parents. One tree will produce between 150 and 180 nuts per tree per year, and between 140 grams to 165 grams of copra can be produced from one hybrid nut. Oil concentration in these nuts is usually 70 per cent.

Two hybrids that are popular in Kerala are Sankara and Kera Sankara, as they both yield more than 210 nuts per palm per year. Kera Sankara is also ideal for cultivation in Coastal Maharashtra and Coastal Andhra Pradesh. Both of these hybrids yield high quality copra with oil content exceeding 68 per cent, according to Dr. Kumaran.

The Tall X Dwarf was the first coconut hybrid in the world, and was developed in India in the 1930s by crossing a West Coast Tall (WCT) female with a Chowghat Green Dwarf (CGD) male.

Cultivation of Tall X Dwarf (T X D) hybrids requires a tall female parent and dwarf male. In the production of Dwarf X Tall (D X T) hybrids, the process is reversed, with dwarf female and tall males used as parents. Inter varietal hybrids such as Tall X Tall and Dwarf X Dwarf are also produced, but preference will depend of the environmental requirements of each plantation.