KASARGOD: A fungus previously considered as less potent has killed hundreds of coconut trees in Kasaragod and Kannur district, said a plant pathologist at the Central Plantation Crops Research Institute (CPCRI).
For the past few months, farmers have been reporting that their coconut palms were drying and dying within four months of getting infected. "This is a mysterious disease killing our trees," said Renjith Nambiar, a coconut farmer in Kallar panchayat.
The outer fronds of the infected coconut trees start to dry and die. "After that, within one to four months, all the fronds die and then the crown falls off, killing the tree," he said.
This is just opposite to the bud rot disease, which affects the crown first and then spreads out, he said.
Nambiar, who is a member of the Kisan Club, a collective of farmers in Kasaragod, said this disease has been reported by farmers in Kodom-Bellur, Balal, Kallar, Panathady, Kuttikol and Bedakam gram panchayats of Kasaragod district and in Cherupuzha in Kannur.
"It is a mysterious disease," said Dr Daliyamol, plant pathologist at CPCRI. She calls it mysterious because the pathogen which she suspects is behind the coconut carnage is known to be less potent. "We are 99% sure a fungus is killing the coconut palms. It is a fungus available everywhere and does not have the potency to kill a tree. We were considering it as a minor pathogen," she said.
She said she will confirm and reveal the identity of the fungus once she gets the DNA sequencing report.
Dr Daliyamol said she first came to know of the disease from farmers in Cherupuzha, a hill panchayat on the border of Kannur and Kasaragod districts.
"The farmers there started noticing this disease in October," he said.
A farmer in Nullipady in Kasaragod town too reported the same symptoms in his coconut orchard. She took samples from Cherupuzha, Nullipady and Kallar.
"In all these places, the fungus was the same," she said.
She said the fungus could be acting differently because of the micro-climatic changes in these places. She said fungicide can be given through root feeding to treat the trees.
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