Technopark TBI seeks ideas to reach the nuts

Kerala’s coconut palm-fringed landscapes are a visual delight for tourists, but for local coconut growers the tall trees present an inherent problem in the backdrop of a labour shortage: The trouble of reaching the nuts.

And what better way to crack the problem than throwing a challenge with a cash prize for the right solution? Kerala industry minister Elamaram Kareem has announced a Rs 1-million prize for an innovative mechanism to harvest coconuts, and the Technopark Technology Business Incubator (T-TBI) here is ready for incubation support for such a venture.

Conditions apply, though. The device should not be like one of those tried-and-failed coconut-climbing gadgets already in the market. “All of those require actual climbing of the tree using some apparatus, and that is difficult to popularize in a state where there is a social stigma attached to coconut climbing”, says T Balakrishnan, principal secretary for industries.

The Coconut Development Board has attempted to solve the problem by organizing camps to train potential climbers use the gadgets available in the market, and supplying long harvesting sticks specially made for harvesting coconuts, but neither of these has been acknowledged as a satisfactory solution to the problem.