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Sunday, 23 January 2011

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Coconut growers thank Govt for subsidy

The Coconut Growers' Association of Sri Lanka has expressed its gratitude to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa and Minister of Coconut Industries Jagath Pushpakumara for granting a subsidy to boost the coconut industry and arrest the shortage of coconuts in the future.

The President of the Coconut Growers' Association Anton Nishantha Fernando told the Sunday Observer that the low harvest and the increased demand for coconuts between November and December last year resulted in the increase in coconut prices in the local market.

He said that the low fertiliser used in the past few years had adversely affected the coconut production and led to the increase in coconut prices.

"According to the Central Bank report issued in 2009, coconut farmers had used 33,000 matric tons of fertiliser for their coconut estates in 2005. It had increased to 36,000 metric tons in 2006 but decreased to 17,000 metric tons in 2009," Fernando said.

He said that the Coconut Growers' Association of Sri Lanka had called for a fertiliser subsidy during the previous regimes but no attention was paid. However the present Government led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa granted a fertiliser subsidy for coconut growers. Coconut growers now receives a bag of 50 kilograms at the subsidised price of Rs.1,000.

The Sri Lankans need 3,500 million coconuts annually for consumption but 3,000 million coconuts are produced.

Fernando is confident that this target could be achieved in a few years.

Immediate Past President of the Coconut Growers Association Parakrama Jayatilake said that the felling of coconut trees had led to the shortage of coconuts in the local market. But this was not the prime reason for the increase in coconut prices.

He said that the blight affecting coconut cultivation in Kerala, India could have spread to Sri Lanka.

We believe that diseases such as Mita and Weligama wilt which affect coconut trees may have come from Kerala, Jayatilake said.

 

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