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PANJIM: If one owns coconut trees, but finds it extremely difficult to find a plucker, there is apparently no need to fret, since the Goa State Horticulture Corporation Ltd is training a batch of 15 pluckers who would be made available for those in need of pluckers.
Announcing this chairman of the GSHCL, Kiran Kandolkar said that Corporation is ensuring that the they do not put the existing ‘padelli/padekar’ coconut pluckers out of business by offering their pluckers at the same rate as would otherwise be available.
“We have trained pluckers, around 15 of them. The last batch is undergoing training and they should be ready by March 15,” Kandolkar said adding that those who seek the services of a plucker could approach the Corporation if they are unable to find one locally. He however said that they will initially be focussing on cities starting with Panjim and later move to others towns and villages.
According to the rates being contemplated by the Corporation, a person seeking a plucker will have to pay Rs 50 per tree and if it is more than five trees, he will have to pay Rs 300 for half a day of plucking. For a full day of plucking the owner will have to shell out Rs 600. Half day’s work consists of two and a half hours of work and a full day’s work will consist of five hours.
“We can’t make our pluckers, pluck for eight hours a day. That would be physically stressful,” Managing Director of GSHCL Orlando Rodrigues said.
He said he hoped that with the availability of pluckers, people in the city who have a few trees in their backyards and courtyard now begin to harvest their crops and even plant more such trees and take care of them.
