|
|
|
  |
| Sunday, 5 June 2005 |
 |
|
 |
Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Move to bring down coconut prices by Gamini Warushamana The Ministry of Plantation Industries will launch a coconut cultivation program today in urban areas to check escalating coconut prices. Accordingly a new coconut variety bearing nuts within three and a half years is being distributed among urban residents. This is a short term variety and people can plant one or two trees even in home gardens or small plots of land. Under the first phase of the program 10,000 plants will be distributed among households in the urban triangle in Panadura, Ja-ela and Kadawatha. In the second phase plants will be distributed next year to urban residents in Kandy, Galle, Badulla, Kalutara and Matara districts, ministry sources said. The ministry hopes to plant 400,000 plants within five years under the program. The program aims to produce coconuts a family needs from their own home gardens. The new coconut variety distributed under the program yields 120-150 nuts per year. Therefore, a family can get all its coconut needs by planting three or four trees. Coconut prices in the local market shot up to over Rs. 25 per nut due to supply constraints. The per-capita coconut consumption of the country is 115 nuts per year. The annual local coconut consumption is between 1,700-1,800 million nuts and it is 70-80% of the total production. Drought, pests such as Mita, partition of valuable coconut lands and decline in the cultivation and low investment in the sector are the reasons for the decline in the supply, a spokesman for the Coconut Cultivation Board said. Coconut is one of the major export crops and the decline in the industry has a negative impact on the overall economy. At present the profit from one acre of coconut is around Rs. 1,000 only. This is one reason for low investments in the coconut plantations. Minister of Plantation Industries Anura Priyadarshana Yapa will launch the program today at the Coconut Cultivation Board. |
|
|||||||||
| News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
