16 varieties on display at areca machinery fair
Areca machinery fair 2009 organised by the Arecanut Research and Development Foundation made an attempt to introduce various machineries used for various purposes to the growers at Puttur Vivekananda Engineering College.
The fair exhibited 16 varieties of machineries used for peeling dry arecanut, 3 machines used for peeling raw areca, one machine which can be used for cutting the areca into different sizes.
The demonstration of the machines were also held at the venue. Information on the uses of the machines were also provided to the visitors.
Areca related machines from Goa, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Shimoga, Belgaum, Sagar, Sirsi, Dakshina Kannada, Kasargod and other places were kept on display.
Machines costing Rs 150 to Rs 1.40 lakh were displayed at the fair. Owing to the shortage of labourers, the machines are essential. However, there is scarcity of qualitative innovation, felt visitors who visited the fair.
In many of the machines, husk of the arecanut does not get peeled off properly.
Some machines cause damage to areca. ‘Karigotu’ and ‘Koka’ areca get powdered completely in the machine, said some of the growers.
V-Tech engineers of Theerthahalli designed machine for peeling raw arecant, Goa based ‘Durga’ arecanut peeling machine, Sagar based ‘Mathan’ arecanut peeling machine, Tumkur based ‘Dharma Technologies’ created arecanut peeling machine, Smith Arecanut Master machine of Tamil Nadu and others were also on display.
Five machines related to the spraying of insecticides and arecanut plucking machines were also on display.
