By Maheesha Mudugamuwa
Coconut Development and Janatha Estate Development Minister Jagath Pushpakumara said that the coconut prices will not increase during the forthcoming festive season.
Addressing the media yesterday (21), at the Ministry auditorium, Minister Pushpakumara said that measures had been taken to provide nine million coconut saplings to farmers by 2012 and around 4.2 million coconut saplings had been given under the Divineguma project to increase the coconut harvest.
Free coconut saplings will be distributed among the farmers who are willing to cultivate coconut in more than five acres of land next year and they will also be able to obtain loans from government banks at low interest rates for their cultivations, he said.
He said that the government had been providing a fertilizer subsidy since 2005 and spends about Rs. 50,000 million on it.
After using the fertilizer, the Ministry expects 10 to 15 percent increase in production.
The minister said that the coconut tree disease in the Southern Province, specially in the Weligama area, was common in Kerala with 80 percent of the coconut plantations in the South Indian state having been wiped out by it as there was no cure for it.
More than 344,000 coconut trees were afflicted by the disease in the south and more than 75,000 affected coconut trees were uprooted during the year to prevent its spread. At the end of 2012 all the affected trees will be destroyed with the ministry allocating Rs. 131 millions for the purpose.
The ministry also launched its new website.
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=41669
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