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| Sunday, 21 March 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Fillip for coconut productivity by Hiran H. Senewiratne The Coconut Cultivation Board (CCB) in a bid to promote and develop the coconut industry has sought the assistance of the private sector following the success of the drip and micro irrigation systems, it had introduced a few years ago.
Introduction of this system in marginal lands and areas with less rainfall was found to be ideal for coconut cultivation. However, the new system had been a tremendous success, especially in the Puttalam district, where coconut production had increased in leaps and bounds. The CCB had implemented this system at grass roots level to popularise it in a big way and increase the cultivation for the benefit of investors as well as those engaged in the industry by obtaining a substantial yield. At present, thousands of acres of such land, especially in the coconut triangle, had been identified by the CCB to introduce the drip and micro irrigation systems. This was the only solution to boost coconut plantation to offset the increasing fragmentation of land cultivated with coconut. These observations by the Chairman of the Coconut Cultivation Board Lincoln Fernando, were made in an exclusive interview with the "Sunday Observer".
Fernando said that more than 5,000 acres of coconut land had been subjected to fragmentation annually for housing and construction, which had resulted in a drastic reduction of the coconut output and this had badly affected the Desiccated Coconut (DC) industry as well as the local consumption. According to CCB, the country's annual coconut requirement was estimated to be around three billion,which would be averagely sufficient for both the DC industry and the local consumption. With the introduction of the new system, the annual coconut harvest per acre had almost doubled, CCB statistics had revealed. However, the CCB, the governing body of the industry, had introduced a series of development plans to uplift the growth in a big way. The present weather changes had also caused much damage to the cultivation and thereby to the production. However the age old practice of burying husks to conserve moisture did not counter these adverse effects resulting from the weather. . Hence, the drip and micro system was identified as the most effective method of counteracting the prolonged droughts and areas with less rainfall, he added. According to Fernando, a pilot project conducted on this system at Mundel Estate in the Puttalam district proved to be beneficial. Later, the CCB in late 1990's experimented it on eight acres of the same estate and, it had planned early this year to irrigate the entire estate of 14 1/2 acres. This inspired the CCB to encourage the growers to adopt this new water management strategy with a subsidy of Rs. 7,500 per acre. The total cost per acre under this system would be less than Rs. 25,000, which was around 33 per cent. There was a positive response from growers and the government had granted this subsidy for a total extent of 1,486 acres. Since the inception of this new system, 3,490 acres had been irrigated, and this year 2000 acres would come under the plough. The CCB was now experimenting this system by introducing fertigators for manuring the land, which would minimise the labour cost. The CCB had also initiated a project to introduce water soluble fertiliser as well, as a fertigator would achieve 100 per cent efficiency, whereas under the manual system productivity was only about 60 per cent. Many estates in the Puttalam district such as Mangalaeliya, Paradisetoys and JMC had successfully implemented this system in a big way. At present, the CCB was also popularising the industry in non- traditional areas like North-East under this system . Meanwhile, the CCB had also introduced various subsidy schemes under the "Kapruka Ayojana" programme. At present, more than 1.1 million acres had come under coconut cultivation. |
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