NEW DELHI // Not very long ago B Raja could find only sporadic employment in his village in the Theni district in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
He worked odd jobs, usually herding livestock for farmers. Life was hard, especially for a family of four. Then, a month ago, his fortunes changed. He learnt to climb coconut trees and harvest their crop.
"Now I climb 40 trees a day, and there's so much work to be had," he says. "For the first time in my life, I have a steady stream of cash. It's a blessing."
The initiative that changed B Raja's life began 18 months ago with a coconut crisis in Kerala. Only 10,000 tree-climbers practised the traditional craft, and at least another 40,000 were needed to harvest all the state's coconuts.
Production had dipped, and farmers were harvesting crops only once every three months, instead of the usual 45 to 60 days.
"Climbers used to be of a particular caste, and their children were not willing to take up their father's profession, because it wasn't very remunerative," says Sugata Ghose of the Coconut Development Board in Kochi, which works under the Indian government's agriculture ministry. "And people from other castes were unwilling to take up these jobs."
The solution was a government-funded training scheme called Friends of Coconut Tree, which has grown from its Kerala roots and has been operating since late last year in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
The board was careful to avoid the word "climbers" in its promotion of its training programme, thus steering clear of caste connotations.
"This is why we called it 'Friends of Coconut Tree'," Mr Ghose said. "Now even higher-caste and educated people are coming into the programme, because there is the promise of a good income, and because they are getting trained by a government organisation."
The training was initially slow to take off but between August 2011 and March 2012 more than 5,600 people completed the six-day course across every district in Kerala. Since then about another 4,400 trainees in the five states have been certified.
The Coconut Development Board ties up with NGOs and district-level agricultural research centres to hold the training programmes. Each group of about 20 trainees cost the government 68,500 rupees (Dh4,600).
Each student is paid 150 rupees a day and receives a coconut-harvesting kit worth 2,500 rupees after completing the programme.
Trainees are taught to work with automated tree-climbing devices, which are now becoming popular throughout south India. They are also instructed in methods of pest control and tree maintenance.
The course includes other general but valuable lessons: first aid, the rudiments of managing savings and social security funds, and communication skills.
The board now prescribes a minimum wage for tree climbers, said Mini Mathew, the programme's publicity officer. "Earlier, if he was lucky, a coconut-tree climber might have been paid 10 rupees to scale a tree," she said. "More probably, he would have been paid in coconuts."
India is the third-largest coconut growing country in the world, producing 15 billion nuts annually. Tamil Nadu and Kerala are India's most productive coconut producing states.
Today, Ms Mathew said, a climber might get up to 25 rupees a tree in rural areas, and even 50 rupees a tree in towns and cities. An experienced climber can tackle up to 40 trees a day. Monthly incomes now range from 15,000 to 30,000 rupees a month.
The board connect climbers with tree owners, via an extensive directory on its website. "We also help them get bank loans to buy two-wheelers, so that they are more mobile," Mr Ghose said.
Even with all these benefits, though, it is a struggle to retain the new recruits.
R Mathavan, a 23-year-old graduate in computer science, went through the programme in the district of Thanjavur, in Tamil Nadu, last October. He had gone, he said, "primarily because my father was in this line of work, and because a few of the other boys in my village wanted to go".
After Mr Mathavan completed the course, he and nine other trainees had planned to take out a bank loan and set up a coconut harvesting business, leasing their services to tree owners across the district. They had even planned a side venture in selling coconut water.
But the coconut harvests were too sporadic for Mr Mathavan.
"We all went back to our respective lines of work," he said. He moved to Chennai and worked in a photographic studio for a few months before returning home.
But Mr Mathavan insists that he found the course useful. "It's always a worthwhile skill to have," he said. "And if five or six of us can get together and revive our plans, I think we can still set up a good business out of it."
ssubramanian@thenational.ae
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
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Want to sound on message about the biggest show on television without actually watching it? Best not to get locked into the labyrinthine tales of revenge and royalty: as Isaac Hempstead Wright put it, all you really need to know from now on is that there’s going to be a huge fight between humans and the armies of undead White Walkers.
The season ended with a dragon captured by the Night King blowing apart the huge wall of ice that separates the human world from its less appealing counterpart. Not that some of the humans in Westeros have been particularly appealing, either.
Anyway, the White Walkers are now free to cause any kind of havoc they wish, and as Liam Cunningham told us: “Westeros may be zombie land after the Night King has finished.” If the various human factions don’t put aside their differences in season 8, we could be looking at The Walking Dead: The Medieval Years.
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The specs
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Tax authority targets shisha levy evasion
The Federal Tax Authority will track shisha imports with electronic markers to protect customers and ensure levies have been paid.
Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director of the tax authority, on Sunday said the move is to "prevent tax evasion and support the authority’s tax collection efforts".
The scheme’s first phase, which came into effect on 1st January, 2019, covers all types of imported and domestically produced and distributed cigarettes. As of May 1, importing any type of cigarettes without the digital marks will be prohibited.
He said the latest phase will see imported and locally produced shisha tobacco tracked by the final quarter of this year.
"The FTA also maintains ongoing communication with concerned companies, to help them adapt their systems to meet our requirements and coordinate between all parties involved," he said.
As with cigarettes, shisha was hit with a 100 per cent tax in October 2017, though manufacturers and cafes absorbed some of the costs to prevent prices doubling.
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Brown/Black belt finals
3pm: 49kg female: Mayssa Bastos (BRA) v Thamires Aquino (BRA)
3.07pm: 56kg male: Hiago George (BRA) v Carlos Alberto da Silva (BRA)
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3.35pm: 69kg male: Isaac Doederlein (BRA) v Paulo Miyao (BRA)
3.42pm: 70kg female: Thamara Silva (BRA) v Alessandra Moss (AUS)
3.49pm: 77kg male: Oliver Lovell (GBR) v Tommy Langarkar (NOR)
3.56pm: 85kg male: Faisal Al Ketbi (UAE) v Rudson Mateus Teles (BRA)
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Director: Christian Carion
Starring: James McAvoy, Claire Foy, Tom Cullen, Gary Lewis
Rating: 2/5
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The flights
Etihad (etihad.ae) and flydubai (flydubai.com) fly direct to Baku three times a week from Dh1,250 return, including taxes.
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A seven-night “Fundamental Detox” programme at the Chenot Palace (chenotpalace.com/en) costs from €3,000 (Dh13,197) per person, including taxes, accommodation, 3 medical consultations, 2 nutritional consultations, a detox diet, a body composition analysis, a bio-energetic check-up, four Chenot bio-energetic treatments, six Chenot energetic massages, six hydro-aromatherapy treatments, six phyto-mud treatments, six hydro-jet treatments and access to the gym, indoor pool, sauna and steam room. Additional tests and treatments cost extra.