‘Underutilized lands help drop in coconut yields’
H.D.H SENEWIRATNE
The Sri Lankan Coconut Cultivation Board (CCB), said that one of the
reasons for the drop in coconut yields, was due to coconut lands being
underutilized and the numbers of trees required for an acre being below
the standard rate. At one time, Sri Lanka was one of the leading coconut
exporters in the region, which exported coconuts to many European and
Asian markets, but had now lost its position due to manifold reasons.
According to CCB standards stipulated, the number of trees for an
acre was 65 and most of the large and small lands have grown below the
required level, CCB Chairman Sarath Keerthiratne said. Currently, there
were more than one million acres under coconut plantation and most of
the lands had been under utilized throughout the country. The reason
being that an average number of trees for an acre was around 35 - 40
trees, which was below the required level.
During the recent past, coconut prices had shot up to more than Rs 65
pre nut, which was far above the average price in the Sri Lankan market,
due to the acute shortage of coconuts. Due to that reason, many Sri
Lankan households were unable to afford that much and used various other
substitutes, such as milk powder for cooking purposes. But today, prices
have come to a stable level due to the increase of its yield in certain
parts of the country.
Currently, the CCB has taken the initiative to promote coconut
cultivation in the North and the Eastern regions which had been
neglected for more than three decades, due to the war situation in
the country, the Chairman said.
The country’s annual coconut requirement was 2.6 billion nuts and
their target was to achieve 3.5 billion with the promotion of coconut
cultivation in the North and the Eastern region and by providing
subsidies for other lands to fill vacancies, he said.
The CCB implements a loan scheme to assist growers to develop coconut
lands through a “Coconut Based Farming Systems.” Growers can apply loans
for certain requirements, he added.
Keerthiratne said that new plantations would be promoted mainly in
the North and the East to grow one hundred thousand acres.
Replanting senile of plantation, rehabilitation of coconut
plantations, inter-cropping in coconut plantations and irrigation of
coconut plantations would be done in traditional coconut growing areas
to increase the yield to meet the ever increasing demand and to control
the price of coconuts, he said. The government’s fertilizer subsidy was
becoming popular and more than one million coconut land owners have
applied for it, he said. |