Case Study Report on Promoting Coconut Based Agro ... - APFED

canopy) but also in lower soil temperatures which may be important for better seedling
survival, soil water relations and possibly rate of litter breakdown and nitrogen
mineralization. Also, air relative humidity will be higher and soil water availability for
intercrops will be maintained at a higher level than in the open because of less
evaporation from the soil and lower crop transpiration rates (Wilson and Ludlow, 1991;
Wilson and Wild, 1991).
Individual household are very much concerned about soil and water resources. Fig
4 depicts that maximum (86%) household adapted Agronomic practices like mulching,
intercrop and mixed crop etc. where has only 14% household were seen practicing of
Engineering method like farm ponds and rainwater harvesting and mulching etc. the
higher percentage agronomic practiced adapted by individual household may be due to
plenty of plant biomass produce from integrated multi species crops.
Efficient utilization of coconut waste biomass mainly depends on availability of
resources, technology and market demand for the prepared product. Coconut husk is one
of the important by- products of coconut tree and 60% households in this region
dependent on coir spinning activity Through the introduction of improved coir spinning
wheels in place of the traditional ones, women have benefited 50% higher income than
what they were earning earlier (from US 1.0 to US $ 2.5). Apart from this every month,
around 105 tones of coir pith is being converted to compost fertilizer. The average
monthly production coir pith compost was 5.6 tones and profit shows about US $ 826.
Similarly coconut wood and shell are effectively converting in to value added products,
like furniture, kitchen utensils, handicrafts etc. This shows that people are highly
dependent on the coconut based activity and effectively using coconut waste for
augmenting household income and environment conservation. This may be due to plenty
of resources availability in the area, introducing improved technology like motorized
spinning units and their may be high market demand for the product.
Table 4. Describes that individual households aware about waste can be
converting to economic or energy sources. Among two composting people shown higher
interest in vermin compost than the mushroom and the production compost is 0.018 tones
and 0.015 tone/ month respectively and the income generated from each component was
about US $ 4.5 and 2.5. Presence of bio-gas unit and 60 mt 3 methane gas productions per
month not only full fill the household energy crises. It also indicates people got
knowledge on how to convert farm waste and kitchen waste in to energy. This may be