HIGH HEAT, LOW WATER: FARMERS GO COCO NUTS

Farmers say the groundwater which was available at a depth of 80 to 100 feet earlier has now dropped to a depth of 200 feet

- N RAMESH

THE coconut fruit buds (kurumbai) are all over the place, on the ground. S Nagarajan, a coconut farmer at Kuruvikkarambai in anjavur district, could do thing but stare at the tall es in his grove, for he knows e sight is just the forerunner the heavy yield loss that he ould face in the months to me.

Blame it on the heat prevailg in the area for the last so any weeks, says a visibly disrbed Nagarajan pointing at e buds. "Naturally this will d to yield loss during the comgplucking time," he adds.

It's not just Nagarajan's plight farmers through out the -lta, the situation is the same. Sundararajan, a coconut mer from Kuruchi near Patkkottai, adds another reason the falling coconut fruit buds arlier, the breeze from the sea arby would be cooler and lped retain the moisture in e air, thereby helping the kumbai stay in the spathe (a rved bract) itself. But, the ean temperature has now ineased and the breeze is no nger cool," says Sundararajan. claims have been confirmed a study by the European Unn's Copernicus Climate ange Service (C3S) which inted out that ocean temperare hit a record high in bruary. Another problem faced by the conut farmers in the delta reon has been the depleting oundwater level. "The groundter which was available at 80O feet has now gone below 200 et. I am not able to pump ough to irrigate my entire Ove that has 1,100 trees spread er 15 acres," says R Palanivea farmer from Therkukottai llage near Pappanadu in anjavur district.