All political parties, including the ruling YSRCP, have diagnosed the prolonged illness of the ‘eldest son of Konaseema’—the sacred coconut tree. However, none of them succeeded in finding a permanent cure for the illness that is plaguing the coconut tree and the farmers of the Godavari Delta in Andhra Pradesh.
The Central Delta is nestled between the Gowthami and the Vasista, two branches of the River Godavari that confluence into the Bay of Bengal. The Central Delta, otherwise known as ‘Konaseema’, is a land where coconuts are grown in over 54,000 hectares of deltaic land in the 16 mandals.
Cocoa is the major intercrop in the coconut orchards. In 2022, the Konaseema region was carved out of the erstwhile East Godavari district and designated as a new district. Later, it was named after Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Konaseema District.