Agricultural College and Research Institute (ACRI), Killikulam, has recognised palmyra as one of the mandatory crops under dry land horticultural crop research as the palm is a suitable and remunerative tree crop for dry lands.
Among the roughly estimated 8.1 crore palm trees in India, nearly 5.1 crore are found in Tamil Nadu. Tuticorin district alone accounted for 50 lakh palmyra trees, V. Subramanian, Dean, ACRI, said here on Sunday. The ACRI, a national-level research centre for palmyra, would form a palm producers’ society in the district.
The outcome of the research on palmyra by the institute could brighten the possibility of palm farmers engaging in export of value-added products of neera, fruit, tuber and fibre, which were in good demand.
The research outcome would also benefit consumers get various hygienic products. Palm leaf-based artefacts were being exported in considerable quantity from Tuticorin port to European countries, Dr. Subramanian told The Hindu .
Palmyra was drought-tolerant and possessed high value of chlorophyll stability index and relative water content compared to coconut tree. As it required less rainfall and care, palmyra tree could be planted on marginal lands, sandy plains, field bunds and even on saline tracts.
Dwarf genotypes collected
The Dean said that potential palm-growing areas, including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Odisha and West Bengal, had already been surveyed and promising dwarf genotypes were collected at the Killikulam centre.
Priority was given to select only dwarf and high-yielding palms with other desirable growth characteristics such as more leaf and stalk length, good trunk girth, and variability in fruit shape and colour.
The increase in plant height, stem girth, number of leaves, leaf length and petiole length was also being evaluated regularly.
So far, 13 joint-surveys along with scientists from All India Coordinated Research Programme on Palmyra had been undertaken and as a result 265 accessions were collected and being maintained at the ACRI, he said.


Source : The Hindu