The Coconut Development Board has decided to establish a new coconut triangle by planting 100,000 coconut saplings in Hambantota district.
Accordingly, the establishment of this new coconut triangle centred on the areas of Ranna, Weeraketiya and Walasmulla is currently being carried out. Accordingly, arrangements have been made to provide five coconut saplings per household to the farmers for planting coconut saplings in their home gardens.
The distribution of coconut saplings to the farmers for this new coconut triangle was done recently with the participation of Agriculture and Plantation Industries Minister Mahinda Amaraweera.
Although coconut cultivation in Sri Lanka is planted as a plantation crop, so far 75 percent of the total coconut production is used for local consumption. Although it is a plantation crop with a high demand for export, coconut production in this country has not yet been developed to the point of export.
Although the total daily consumption of coconuts is around 4.5 million nuts, the daily production of coconuts is around three million nuts. For this reason, the Minister has instructed the National Coconut Development Board to implement a programme to motivate the people to cultivate coconut cultivation in every home garden that has space.
A large amount of coconut that can be used in the consumption of our country is destroyed due to ignorance. For this reason, the Minister also instructed the Board to prepare practical programmes to inform the public about how to get the maximum benefit from a coconut.
Steps have been taken to provide coconut saplings to the farmers of those seven villages in relation to the Youth Agri Entrepreneurship Village Programme currently operating in seven villages of Hambantota district.
