12-14% of coconut area infested with pests in Karnataka: Minister

Union Minister of State for Agriculture Ramnath Thakur informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that about 12.2–14.7 per cent of the coconut growing area in Karnataka is infested with pests and diseases.

Replying to a question by Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha member Dr C N Manjunath, the Minister said that the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare had constituted a working group and a central expert team to assess the major coconut pests and diseases in Karnataka.

"The teams found that 12.2–14.7 per cent of the coconut area in the state is infested with pests and diseases and recommended suitable management measures," the Minister said.

An amount of Rs 174.55 crore has been utilised in Karnataka over the last five years for implementing field-oriented schemes, with a major focus on productivity improvement and pest and disease management. The Coconut Development Board (CDB), under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, conducted 144 programmes during the last five years and 16 programmes in 2025–26 on pest and disease management in Karnataka.

“The CDB’s Demonstration-cum-Seed Production Farm (DSP) at Mandya produced and distributed 11.27 lakh biological control ectoparasitoids, Goniozus nephantidis, for controlling the coconut black-headed caterpillar during the last five years,” the Minister said.

Under the Technology Mission on Coconut scheme, the CDB supported five projects in Karnataka with an assistance of Rs 1.06 crore for developing technologies for pest and disease management over the last five years.

During the current year, Rs 10.89 crore was released for ‘Productivity Improvement through Coconut-Based Cropping System’ (covering 3,757 hactares) and Rs 4.52 crore for Replanting & Rejuvenation (covering 1,000 hectares), with special emphasis on pest and disease management in Karnataka. Coconut palms in the country are affected by various pests and diseases such as Black-Headed Caterpillar (BHC), Rugose Whitefly, Red Palm Weevil, Stem Bleeding, and Leaf Blight, the Minister said

To improve coconut productivity and support farmers, the Centre has introduced the yield-based Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and the weather index-based Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS) from Kharif 2016. Karnataka has been implementing these schemes since their inception in 2016.

To provide remunerative prices to farmers, the government is implementing the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS), a component under PM-AASHA, for perishable agricultural and horticultural commodities not covered under MSP. This is aimed at preventing distress sales during periods of excess production and price fall, he said.