Ponda: With the younger generation from Ponda shying away from taking up the coconut plucking trade in favour of white collared jobs, and the number of older coconut pluckers diminishing, people from the taluka are finding it difficult to find such skilled professionals. This has not been an issue just for coconut growing farmers but landlords also.
Getting a coconut plucker has become so difficult, that there are coconuts drying on trees in Ponda for months.
This has also led to the prices of coconuts to soar.
The small-sized coconuts are sold at RS 20, while the bigger-sized ones are sold at RS 25 to 35 and it is affecting the common man. The few coconut pluckers that are left, charge around Rs 75 to Rs 100 for climbing trees. But they too plan to retire soon due to their old age.
Senior coconut plucker Dhaku Naik felt that exceptions aside, the younger generation is not ready to climb trees as they have fear of falling from the tree and that such type of past incidents, has also pushed them away. He lamented that in case of injury there is no job security and that the youngsters prefer government or white collared jobs.
He however pointed out that due to the shortage, even tree cleaning work remains unattended and there is less production of coconut. He felt this too was worrisome.
He acknowledged that the government encourages youth for this work but that there haven’t been too many takers despite there being devices like the climbing machines etc.
