Coconut industry:

Govt considers fertilizer subsidy

Chaminda Perera

The Government will seriously consider the introduction of a fertilizer subsidy to the coconut industry in a bid to promote coconut production and avert a possible coconut shortage in the future, a senior official attached to the Coconut Cultivation Board told the Daily News yesterday.

He said a 50 Kg bag of fertilizer is to be provided to coconut cultivators at Rs 1,000.

Small, medium and large scale coconut cultivators will benefit from this move, he said.

A high profile meeting representing all stakeholders in the coconut industry attended a meeting to discuss the formalities of this scheme and how fertilizer should be distributed to coconut smallholders at grass root level. The meeting was held on President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s directive, he added.

The official said the coconut cultivators who participated in this meeting emphasized that a tree needs at least four Kgs of fertilizer initially to increase the productivity.

The officials and coconut cultivators have proposed that the cultivations which are less than 10 acres in extent should receive the fertilizer subsidy according to the number of coconut trees and cultivations above 10 acres deserve fertilizer subsidy on the basis of acreage, he said.

It was decided at the meeting to obtain the assistance of Grama Niladharis, Samurdhi Development officers and Agriculture Research and Development officers to ascertain the number of trees in each household to receive the fertilizer subsidy, the official added. However the minimum number of coconut trees for an acre has not been decided yet, he added.