Report compiled for the 2007 Paris International Agricultural Fair
All you need to know about coconut
Cultivation, harvesting and diseases
Coconut, a plant that fruits all year round
The discovery of fossilized coconuts in New Zealand and India showed that coconut palms have existed for millions of years.
The plant is now grown throughout the humid intertropical zone, particularly in coastal regions but also up to 1000 metres above sea level!
Coconut palms are often grown in places that are difficult to use for other crops (sandy beaches or peat soils in marshland areas).
Coconut palms are strictly tropical
The land on which coconut is planted is of little importance. It can be grown on the seashore, on poor sandy soils, where it finds the sunshine and salt winds it likes. It can even be fertilized with salt, which has a beneficial effect on kernel size.
Coconuts are easy to germinate: they can simply be placed on the ground or, better still, half-buried after cutting a split in the husk.
Depending on the variety and growing conditions, coconut palms begin fruiting between four and ten years after planting, and they grow, flower and fruit all year round. Once completely ripe, the nuts fall off the bunch onto the ground, where they are collected regularly.
There are usually six harvesting rounds a year, but on smallholdings, the frequency is governed by events: boat services to the island, the need for cash for a new school year, for specific purchases, etc. However, since germination begins as soon as the nuts fall, harvesting too late results in a high proportion of unusable germinated nuts.
Coconut palms are often grown with other crops such bananas, cloves or cocoa, not forgetting all the different food crops traditionally grown locally.
Near dwellings, it provides shade for growing vegetables and medicinal plants.
Travellers have often taken coconuts with them on their tropical sea voyages, not only to plant around their future dwellings, but also as a "long-life" food and drink.
Pests and diseases
Coconut palms suffer from numerous pests and diseases:
- insects attack the terminal bud, fronds, stem, roots, inflorescences and fruits;
- parasitic fungi such as Phytophthora katsurae
and P. palmivora
cause rotting of the unripe nuts and terminal bud in Southeast Asia, Africa and the Caribbean;
- rats and coconut crabs can also severely damage nuts, and groups of wild boars can destroy young plantings in a single night.
A disease, lethal yellowing, caused by a microorganism called a phytoplasma, causes considerable damage and has destroyed many coconut plantings worldwide.