PURI: Left devastated by cyclone Fani, thousands of coconut farmers of Puri district are now staring at a bleak future. The raging storm blew away years of labour and hard work put in by them.
Sources in Coconut Development Board under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare said till March end, the farmers had planted coconut trees on 9,986 hectares. They were hoping that the production would cross the last season’s figure of 859.47 lakh. But, that was not to be.

Fani has uprooted around 40 per cent coconut trees and damaged crown of several others. Destruction of coconut plants has put livelihood of thousands of farmers on the line in Puri, Sakhigopal and Samajajpur.
Devastated by the damage and destruction of their only means of livelihood, the farmers are worried about managing their expenses. “I used to earn around `60,000 a year from coconut farming. The trees are now damaged. The cyclone has ruined me,” said Prabhakar Behera from Samajajpur area.

Farmers said coconut trees generally start bearing fruit four to five years after planting the sapling. The long time span has left the growers with little option to manage their expenses. Dijabar Bhoi from Puri, who has around 40 coconut trees, said, “I will have to work as a labourer to meet expenses of my family.”
Apart from individual farmers, farmers of coconut production societies registered with the Coconut Development Board have also sustained huge losses.

Affected coconut farmers in Sakhigopal, Jagannathpur and Birabhadrapur said the Government should grant relief assistance to recover the loss and revive their livelihood. 

Though the State Government is yet to make any assessment, the number of coconut trees damaged in the district will run into millions. The total financial loss suffered by farmers will also be in crores, they said.