Ecological and economic study on Coconut plantations in coastal Ganjam and Puri districts of Odisha

Abstract

The coconut palm (Cocos nucifera L.) is one of the most beautiful and useful palms in newlinethe world. It provides a variety of useful products like food fuel, fibre and timber. Coconut newlinepalm is one of the most important sources of vegetable oil in the world. This plant is known newlineas wonder plant yielding many products. newlineThe coconut is a member of the family Arecaceae (Palmaceae). It is only the accepted newlinespecies in the genus Cocos and is a large palm, grow up to 30 m tall, with pinnate leaves 4-6 newlinem long, and pinnae 60 to 90 cm long, old leaves shatter away plainly, leaving the trunk newlinesmooth. Out of the 7,500 km coast line of India, Odisha in the eastern part of it runs over 482 km newlinealong the Bay of Bengal and represents the alluvial belt, a physiographic unit of its own. The newlinecoastal Ganjam and Puri are bounded by Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh on the south newlineand Jagatsinghpur on the north. The coast line of Ganjam is about 64 km while Puri district is newline138 km. Ganjam one of the 30 districts of Odisha, lies between 18° 58´ N to 20° 17´ N newlinelatitude and 84° 06´ E to 85° 11´ E long. For the present work two coastal districts of Odisha are selected. Three plantation newlinesites were selected in the Ganjam coast i. e., Gopalpur, Batachatrapur and Golabandha. In newlinePuri district four plantation sites were selected namely Kusumeswar, Anandapur, Kerandia newlinecoconut farm and Regional coconut research centre. In Ganjam namely, Gopalpur, newlineBatachatrapur and Golabandha, those are situated about 22.12 km, 15.35km and 12.89 km newlinefrom Berhampur city. In Puri namely Kusumeswar, Anandapur and Kerandia coconut farm newlineand Regional coconut research station that are situated about 19.95 km, 21.51 km, 16.09 km newlineand 17.10 km from Puri sea beach. newline