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By Channa Kasturisinghe

Mahaweli Coconut Plantations Ltd. (MCP), which has ventured on an ambitious task of cultivating coconut in the Polonnaruwa district is looking forward to expand its cultivation area up to 5,000 acres.

The first coconut plants cultivated less than three years ago on a land belonging to the Mahaweli System 'B' at Bogaswewa, Aralaganwila have come into bearing proving that the company's untiring efforts to extend coconut cultivation in this area have not been in vain.

"The first plant came into bearing within two-and-a-half years is a wonderful achievement. It usually takes about five years or more for coconut plants to come into bearing in the traditional coconut cultivating areas. We started with cultivating coconut here on 1,500 acres and now we have enough reasons to continue with our original idea of expanding the cultivation up to 5,000 acres," Chairman of the company Sunil Watawala told the 'Daily News'.

He said the main reason behind the success story has been the effective use of modern technology in the form of drip irrigation introduced by scientists from Israel.

"It was believed that areas such as Polonnaruwa are not suitable for mass scale coconut cultivation due to unfavourable climatic and weather conditions. There were a lot of misgivings among professionals in the coconut industry that this would end up as a futile attempt.

But today we have been able to prove that by using modern technology we could make things happen, he said. Drip irrigation is the ideal means of irrigating the lands in the Dry Zone. Countries such as Israel and other Middle Eastern countries are using this technology successfully in agriculture. There is no reason why we cannot do the same.

Although the initial investment on drip irrigation is a little high there are several advantages. First the amount of water required is far less than in the traditional irrigation systems.

We can apply fertilizer to the fields using the system and it is effective and reduces costs and labour. We could ensure a uniform growth in all the plants in the estates as each plant was treated alike, thanks to this effective water management and fertilizer application system," Mr. Watawala said.

He said one of the reasons for venturing into this task was due to unrealistic coconut prices in the local market, which has affected the D/C industry and other coconut related industries in the country.

"Since the previous Government imposed a surcharge on imported palm oil, coconut prices increased tremendously during the last few years. The D/C industry, which had been the main foreign exchange earner in coconut products of our country had to undergo a difficult period as the cost of production increased due to the high price of raw materials. It has become difficult for us to compete with countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia.

One of the main reasons for coconut prices going up is the drop in production. The area under cultivation in traditional coconut growing areas is rapidly decreasing due to blocking of lands for construction purposes.

The lack of using modern technology to increase production is another factor. Therefore, the D/C Millers' Association together with the MCP decided to launch this project to expand the cultivation into the Dry Zone," Mr. Watawala said. The MCP is also growing bananas for local and export markets. There are about 18,000 teak plants and over 5,000 Acasia plants grown as windbreakers to be used as timber.

Mr. Watawala said the company is awaiting the green light from the Government to go ahead with the second phase of the project to expand cultivation up to 5000 acres.

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