Summary:
They resorted to intercropping by planting jackfruit trees, mango trees, teak and red sanders between the coconut trees, he said. The impact of the cyclone would have its effect on them for at least the next two decades, farmers said. Farmers lost their horticulture crops that they had been raising for more than 10 years in a matter of a few minutes. Cyclone Gaja has uprooted at least 60% of the trees. “As per rough estimates, over 3 lakh coconut trees were uprooted in the cyclone out of a total 10 lakh trees in the district,” said Dhanapathi.“Farmers in Pudukottai district had adopted horticulture crops to sustain agriculture over the past couple of decades after being hit by successive droughts..