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Weather stations installed in Pollachi to study climate impact on coconut, nutmeg trees
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Coimbatore: In a bid to scientifically assess the impact of climate change on crops, particularly coconut and nutmeg, a group of farmers in Pollachi have installed advanced, cost-effective mini meteorological stations at 10 locations in Kottur village.
These stations monitor real-time temperature and humidity, storing data on the cloud for further research.
Pollachi, known for its coconut cultivation, is now witnessing a sharp decline in yield owing to root wilt disease, which affected nearly 30% of the plantations in Pollachi and Anaimalai taluks. This, combined with erratic climate conditions and whitefly menace, makes coconut trees highly vulnerable. Yield has dropped by up to 70% in certain areas, pushing the farmgate price of coconuts up to Rs35 per count and tender coconuts to Rs45 per count.
"The condition of root wilt in plants get worse because of harsh and unpredictable weather and attacks by pests. We need scientific studies and climate data to formulate mitigation policies," said R Ranjit Kumar, managing director, Pollachi Nutmeg Farmer Producer Company.
"The nutmeg crop, traditionally disease-free in this region, is now showing signs of climate-related stress. More than 400 mature nutmeg trees died in the past two summers.
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The usual harvesting season that begins in June started unusually early in April this year, with 80% of the harvest completed by June-end. Moreover, a rise in immature nutmeg and mace - about 20–40% of total yield - is causing further losses," he said.
To address these issues, the Pollachi Nutmeg Farmer Producer Company, in collaboration with Bengaluru-based Phy Tech, has installed the mini weather stations at a cost of Rs3,000, per unit.
These compact, weatherproof devices function even in network-poor areas by transmitting data over a spectrum allocated for scientific use. Every 10 units feed into a central hub, which relays data to the farmer and uploads it to the cloud.
The company has plans to expand the initiative to all member farms and requested Tamil Nadu Agricultural University to analyse the data to study climate impact and recommend high-value crops like mangosteen, rambutan or blueberry, as potential alternatives to coconut.
