Online edition of Daily News

The Desiccated Coconut Millers' Association has sought Government assistance to increase the extent of its coconut plantation at Aralaganwila to 5,000 acres in an effort to revive the country's dying coconut industry.

The President of the Association Sunil Watawala told the Daily News that the Mahaweli Coconut Plantation at Aralaganwila where the first palm was planted in 1998 is the best example that drip irrigation can be effectively used to increase the production of coconut.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe visited the Mahaweli Coconut Plantation (MCP) at Aralaganwila, Polonnaruwa on Friday. Plantation Industries Minister Lakshman Kiriella and the Chairman of MCP Sunil Watawala are also in the picture.

He said the Association was grateful to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who paid a special visit to the plantation last Friday and hoped that his visit would lead to the future boost of the coconut sector in the country.

"We have planted about 100,000 coconut plants on 1,500 acres at Aralaganwila which is not a traditional coconut growing area. There are about 6,500 plants which have come into bearing by now which shows that drip irrigation can do wonders. Usually a coconut plant in a traditional area takes from 7-8 years to come into bearing. But here there are plants which have come into bearing within three to four years. Drip irrigation would also increase the number of nuts per year and reduce cost on water, labour and fertiliser by fifty percent, Watawala said.

He said he was happy that the Government has shown an interest in promoting drip irrigation in coconut plantations and the Plantation Minister Lakshman Kiriella has assured his support towards promoting this system in the country. The Minister accompanied the Premier on his visit to the Plantation.

Watawala said it was difficult to obtain credit for this type of project from commercial banks in the country and therefore the only way to finance this project is to collect an additional cess from the D/C millers on the long term basis of five years.

"Our request is to re-introduce the cess collection scheme and make arrangements to provide us with more land from the Mahawali system to expand this project." Watawala said. He said drip irrigation would solve the problem of shortage of coconuts for the related industries.

Meanwhile, the Government recently showed its commitment to promote the country's coconut industry by introducing a scheme to provide financial assistance to growers to install drip irrigation systems in their plantations. Under this scheme US$ 10 million has been allocated under the Indian Line of Credit Line. It is aimed at increasing productivity and production in order to realise the industry's envisaged plans to harvest four billion nuts by 2010.