Port Blair, Feb 26: Coconut is the indispensible part of day to day life of Nicobarese community of these islands. However, coconut production in many areas is largely affected by the shortage of skilled manpower for carrying out various operations. In order to reduce the drudgery involved in harvesting and postharvest handling of coconut, ICAR-CIARI distributed palm climbing devices and coconut dehuskersto the Nicobarese farmers since past few years under Scheduled Tribe Component of the Institute. In continuation to this, Dr. Ajit Waman and Dr. Pooja Bohra, Scientists of ICAR-CIARI, carried out field demonstrations of these devices in a coconut plantation of the village during February 18 and 19.Local youth actively participated in demonstrations and tried their hands on these devices. After the demonstrations, thirty climbing devices and forty dehuskers were distributed to the participants. Smt. Kitty Hilton, First Captain and Mr. Festus Nathaniel, Secretary, Tribal Council lauded the initiative of carrying out demonstrations and narrated the utility of these devices to the community. Mr. Festus also told that coconut dehuskers are becoming handy tools to the tribal women who are commonly using it now. The programme was coordinated by Dr. B.A. Jerard, HoD, Horticulture & Forestry Division under the overall supervision of Dr. A. Kundu, Director & Nodal Officer of TSP/STC, CIARI, Port Blair. Earlier, Mr. YosephYencis, Third Captain of the village, proposed welcome address of the event.