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By Channa Kasturisinghe

The Plantation Industries Ministry is planning to introduce micro-irrigation systems on a large scale to Sri Lanka's coconut plantations as a part of its five-year development plan to bring stability and economic viability to the industry.

This measure would be welcomed by all the stake holders in the coconut industry which has been suffering from instability of the annual coconut production mainly due to unpredictable weather. According to industry experts, by resorting to drip-irrigation systems coconut plantations would be less dependent on weather and would be able to increase productivity to a greater extent.

Using drip-irrigation in coconut cultivation at a large scale has been successfully tried out by Mahaweli Coconut Plantations (PVT) Ltd., (MCP) at Aralaganwila, Polonnaruwa, an area which was traditionally believed to be unsuitable for coconut cultivation.

According to MCP Chairman Sunil Watawala using drip irrigation in coconut cultivation has become a `must' and is the only way to be assured of a stable annual coconut production, adequate for domestic consumption and for industrial processing, including D/C and coconut oil. He said that the country's annual coconut need is 3.2 billion nuts and the plantations should resort to modern technology to maintain that level throughout.

"When we initiated the Aralaganwila project in December 1998, many people thought we were ambitious.

But since then the plantation has grown in leaps and bounds. We have completed planting of 1,500 acres amounting to approximately 100,000 palms. Most of the plants came into bearing comparatively earlier than in usual. A total of 2,500 have come into bearing so far which is largely due to drip-irrigation system," Watawala said.

Speaking at the Annual General Meeting of Sri Lanka Desiccated Coconut Miller's Association on Friday, Industries Minster Rohitha Bogollagama said that the Government through the Indian Line of Credit has made arrangement for the coconut sector to obtain technological assistance and expertise from India.

"There are various opportunities for this sector to obtain such assistance from India. Micro-irrigation is one such area that is available through the line of credit. We have set up the Bureau of Services in Colombo to assist those who are interested," the Minister said.

Deputy Minister, Plantation Industries Navin Dissanayake said that his Ministry is planning to adopt two major strategies in its efforts to increase productivity of coconut plantations.

"One is the introduction of micro-irrigation systems such as drip irrigation so that our dependence on weather would be minimised.

"The other is the production of coconut-based farming systems, including inter-cropping with cash crops and introduction of animal husbandry since we are now convinced that coconut as a mono-crop cultivation can never bring remunerative incomes to farmers and therefore not commercially viable," Minister said.

He said two other critical factors that have been taken into account in preparing the development plan, include an assured, remunerative farm-gate price (of not less than eight rupees) and a consistent and complimentary import tariff on edible oils.

"Sri Lanka's coconut industry went through a difficult period last year, due to a severe shortfall in the crop. There had been many reasons. The main is the inadequate rain-fall during the preceding two years. The other main reason had been the curtailment of cultivation in-puts such as fertiliser application, owing to the low farm-gate prices which prevailed in the year 2000, caused by a bumper harvest and ad-hoc changes in policy on import of edible oils. Farm-gate prices had fallen below three rupees per nut and in most instances to levels below the cost of production.

The instability and poor performance we witnessed in the entire coconut industry last year, was a direct result of the above adversities experienced during the previous two years," the Deputy Minster said.

He said that coconut production in 2002 was estimated to 2200 million nuts, which is from 20 to 25 percent less than the normal annual requirements for household consumption and industrial processing.

"Due to this short supply, coconut prices reached the levels of rupees eleven to twelve at farm-gate and rupees eighteen to nineteen in the retail market. The Government was concerned about the prices consumers had to pay for coconut and coconut oil and also about the non-availability of coconuts for industrial processing, such as for D/C.

There was a strong clamour and lobby, to import coconuts, to address the above situation. However our Ministry was able to convince the Government on the hazardous consequences, technical and economic of importing coconuts.

Instead our Ministry took a series of steps to accommodate the situation which arose from the short-fall in the crop last year. We established a system of monitoring regularly the supply and demand position and a quick mechanism to adjust import tariffs on edible oils and copra, facilitating a certain volume of imports.

A package of assistance was introduced to supply coconuts from the estates managed by the Coconut Cultivation Board and the Coconut Research Institute, to consumers at Rs.13.50 a nut. Coconuts from these estates were also offered to the CWE for sale through its retail outlets," the Deputy Minster said.

He said those measures helped to a great extent in controlling the short-supply situation.

"These measures also helped in maintaining at least a certain level of D/C production and exports last year and 30,000 metric tons of D/C had been produced. When we compare with our normal production capacity of 50,000 to 60,000 tons per year, this may not be good enough, but considering the desperate situation we were in, during the early part of the year, where upto end of June only about 9000 tons had been exported.

The same measures helped us earn the maximum possible foreign exchange last year and it is remarkable that, despite the severe short-fall in the crop, the total foreign exchange earnings from coconut products last year surpassed the total earnings in 2001, by Rs.1.2 billion. Considering the fact that in 2001 the harvest was a fairly good one, compared with the acute short-supply last year, the overall performance of the industrial and export sectors last year, is indeed quite satisfactory," the Deputy Minster said.

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