M J Joseph alias Appachan is an innovative farmer. He has studied upto fourth standard and could not continue further studies due to financial problems. Though Appachan could not get much formal education, he had the gift to learn from his surroundings. His first invention was an instrument that could squeeze coconut milk and juice from fruits. It could not gain popularity, as the instrument was expensive. He has tried several other innovations.

The palm climber consists of two metal loops of 10 mm MS rod having sub-loops, rubber belt, wire ropes, connecting clamp, MS plates etc. One loop is intended for the right leg and the other for the left leg. These are called right leg loop and left leg loop respectively, the left loop (main loop) being slightly bigger than the right loop. The top of the main loop is bent forward to form handle and just below this part, two metal plates are attached with holes with a long rubber belt. On the rubber belt a wire rope having rings on each end is fixed. The bottom most part is a plate and a clamp is provided above it. A long holed plate is fixed on the main loop, which is used as parking brake.

Ropes attached to the climber are used to fasten it to the palm. The ropes passes around the tree and through hooks provided in the climber. A pedal is provided for resting the foot. Raise the right side peddle a little upward so that the grip of the right hand part of the climber will become loose facili-tating upward move-ments by using the right hand and the right leg. Once the right part is moved up the weight of the body rests on the right hand part of the climber. The whole process is repeated for the left hand side. In this way one can easily climb coconut or arecanut palms.