Peeling areca made easy

 Efforts were made by manufacturers to come out with an easier technique to peel arecanut. Peeling of arecanut is a laborious task. Owing to absence of skilled labour for spraying pesticides, harvesting and de-husking, areca cultivation is far from economical. For long, efforts have been made by many innovators to build appropriate machines for the purpose.

The Areca Research and Development Foundation (ARDF) has ensured that all machinery built so far is displayed under a single roof, thereby making it possible for farmers to interact with the innovators.

Over 30 inventors participated in this grand fair, held  in association with Vivekananda Engineering College, Puttur and Farmer First Trust, Puttur. As many as 25,000 farmers visited the stalls which had 25 power machines and three hand operated ones. Manufacturers and inventors from Tamilnadu, Kallikote, Goa, Sagar and Belgaum exhibited their machines. Vishwanath Kuntuvalli, a farmer of Shimoga district displayed four kinds of machines. He has already sold over 700 machines. Narasimha Bhat of Vittla had a very compact unit with a capacity of 25-30 kilos per hour. There were machines with a capacity of over 100 kilos per hour.