Palm trees, particularly coconut, arecanut and palmyrah play an important part in Indian rural life. All three produce materials for house construction, basket-making and the like, and may be tapped for juice, a popular drink either fresh or fermented. Arecanut is in widespread demand as a masticatory; but pre-eminent as a crop is the coconut, whose multifarious uses have earned for it the title “Tree of Life“. With an average annual yield of twenty nuts per tree, but the potential to produce up to two hundred, selection and breeding offer great possibilities for improvement.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Anon. (1976a) Arecanut Bull. 7, (3), 82
2.
Anon. (1976b) Arecanut & Spices Bull., 7, (4), 85
3.
Anon. (1976c) International Symposium on Coconut Research and Development, 28–31 Dec. 1976. Abstracts of Papers. Indian Society of Plantation Crops, Kasargod, Kerala, India
4.
BaileyL H, BaileyE Z (1941) A concise dictionary of gardening, general horticulture and cultivated plants in North America. Macmillan & Co., NY
5.
BaileyL H (1951) Manual of cultivated plants. Macmillan & Co., NY
6.
BhavappaK V A, NamboothriK V K (1974) Indian J. Genet. 34(A), 58
7.
GrimwoodB E (1975) Coconut palm productsFAO, Rome
8.
KrishnappaK T (1973) Report of the Committee constituted by the State Government of Mysore to study the price structure of arecanut and other allied matters. Government of Mysore, Agriculture & Forest Dept. pp 41
9.
MenonK P V, PandalaiK M (1958) The coconut palm – a monographIndian Central Coconut Committee, Ernakulam, India
10.
MooreO K (1948) Econ. Bot. 2, 119
11.
NairP K R (1974) Inter and mixed cropping in coconut. Lecture No. 1. Summer Institute on improvement and management of plantation crops. Central Plantation Crops Research Institute, Kasargod
12.
PandalaiK M, KrishnaM M (1966) Cocon. Bull., 20, (2), 21
13.
PursegloveJ W (1972) Tropical crops: monocotyledons 2Longman, London. pp 605
ThomasK T (1974) Improvement and management of oil palm. Lecture X. Summer Institute on improvement and management of plantation crops. Central Plantation Crops Research Institute, Kasargod
