Determination of key parameters for grading dehusked coconut using principal component analysis

Grading of the coconuts adds value to the product and gives better economic return to the farmers as grading reduces the ambiguity in pricing. The aim of the study was to identify the suitable parameters for grading dehusked coconut. In this study, major diameter, minor diameter, length, weight of nut, shell, copra, kernel and water, thickness of shell and kernel were considered. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed to achieve the least possible number of parameters which govern an original variation in the dehusked coconut. From the PCA results, two plots viz., score plot and loading plot were obtained for three different size ranges of dehusked coconut (80-90, 91-100 and 101-110 mm diameter). The loading plot revealed that, the weight of nut and weight of kernel were the important variables in all the ranges of sizes of dehusked coconut. Score plot was helpful to find the variation between the weights of nut in each size range of dehusked coconuts. Therefore, the present study concluded that the dehusked coconut can be graded by size as well as weight which may fetch more profit to the coconut producers rather than grading manually by size alone.