GOALS

• Current 3 billion coconut production to increase by 40%, to achieve a nut production target of 4.2 billion per annum.



ACTION PLAN

1. To gather knowledge on coconut sector development, conduct literature reviews on current global and local best practices.
2. The Coconut Research Board, Coconut Cultivation Board and Coconut Development Authority should act as one entity to develop the sector.
3. Location of regional offices to be closest to areas where coconuts are planted. If not, relocate/ increase the number of regional offices to cater to the requirements of these coconut plantations.
4. Expansion of coconut cultivation land by 20%, which will be an additional 200,000 acres of land allocated for growing coconut.
5. The current total land area used for coconut plantation is one million ninety five thousand (1,095,000) acres. To increase the land area under coconut cultivation, initiate a program with 14,022 Grama Nildhari Divisions, along with agriculture development officers to identify land spaces available within existing lands, where 50 trees per acre can be increased to 60 trees per acre.
6. To train all agriculture development officers at each Grama Niladhari Division create training videos in Sinhala and Tamil on,
   • How to identify free space at existing coconut cultivated lands (smallholders)
   • How to identify other small lands that can be used to plant coconut
   • Cultivation practices
   • Water management
   • Nutrient management
   • Pest and disease management
   • Farm implements (equipment) for coconut
   • Harvest and post-harvest technologies
   • Coconut processing
   • Schemes and services for coconuts
   • Marketing strategy for coconut
   • How to maintain farmer-officer relationship
7. Coconut seedling production in 2020 was only 2 million seedlings. The target set for 2021 is to increase seedlings to 4 million per annum. If the same number of seedlings of 4 million will be continued for the coming 10 years, this will result in the cultivation of 40 million trees within a decade.
8. 2,500 - 3,000 coconuts are cultivated per acre of land. On average, one acre has 50 coconut trees with nuts per tree ranging from 50 - 60. When compared with countries such as India and Indonesia, nuts per tree produced in Sri Lanka is low. To increase nuts from 60 to 90 per tree, hybrid coconut varieties should be introduced.
9. To address the seedling shortage of high yield coconut varieties in Sri Lanka, a policy decision should be taken to encourage people who have 100 acres or more by supplying them with 6,400 seedlings from any hybrid coconut variety to develop 10 large-scale private sector coconut seedling farms.
   
   Achievement of this project would be the availability of 3 million coconut hybrid seedlings.
   
   These 10 coconut seedling farms will contribute to the development of the coconut industry by creating new jobs and by sharing their,
   
   
   • Cultivation practices
   • Water management techniques
   • Nutrient management techniques
   • Pest and disease management techniques
   • Farm Implements (equipment) details
   • Harvest and post-harvest technologies
   • Coconut processing methods
   • Schemes and services information
   • Marketing assistance and seedling buyer linking for the new farmers
   
   The current process of buying varieties such as Kapruwana, Kapsuwaya and Kapsetha requires a permit to purchase 10 plants out of any of the 3 varieties. The approval process for the permit takes 365 days, which is a hassle for potential growers.
10. All areas in Sri Lanka can be used to grow and cultivate coconut including Walapane, Kothmale and Hagurukanketha, except for other areas in Nuwara Eliya.
11. Constant supply and availability of fertilizer at each village.
12. Create awareness videos on water management in coconut cultivation on YouTube with free access for farmers to watch and learn.
13. Introduce an app similar to Coconut Expert System developed by Tamil Nadu Agriculture University in India.
    The app will consist of,
    • Cultivation practices for coconut
    • Water management for coconut
    • Nutrient management for coconut
    • Pest and disease management for coconut
    • Farm implements (equipment) for coconut
    • Harvest and post-harvest technologies for coconut
    • Coconut processing
    • Schemes and services for coconut
    • Marketing and institutions for coconut.
14. Conduct a comparison study with Coconut Development Board in India and Indonesia to identify further areas of improvement in fields such as new technologies, land expansions, seedling nursery developments and any other new project initiatives.
15. Introduce coconut varieties that have a short stem and slow growth in height.
16. Introduce a King coconut variety that has the same coconut water taste throughout.
17. For export purposes, introduce sweet young coconuts that have the same coconut water taste, similar to sweet young coconuts in Thailand.
18. Efficient inter-crop management
    • Locate lands out of currently cultivated lands of one million ninetyfive thousand (1,095,000) that have already planted other crops such as Rambutan, Turmeric, Pepper, Vanilla, Banana, Pineapple, Katu Anoda to assist the farmers to get better harvests.
    • Locate lands out of currently cultivated lands of one million ninety-five thousand that have not planted other crops such as Rambutan, Turmeric, Pepper, Vanilla, Banana, Pineapple, Katu Anoda to introduce the above intercrop varieties to increase farmers’ income.
19. Total exports of coconut kernel, fibre, shell, finished products (fibre), other products such as coconut ekels and coconut handicrafts/wood stood at USD 665 million in 2020. Whereas tea export was USD 1,240 million and rubber was USD 816 million.
    Total exports of coconut kernel, fibre, shell, finished products (fibre), other products such as coconut ekels and coconut handicrafts/wood stood at USD 665 million in 2020. Whereas tea export was USD 1,240 million and rubber was USD 816 million.
20. Total households in Sri Lanka are 5.7 million. Out of that, 36% of households (2 million) have blenders. Only 50% of them (1 million) use blenders for coconut milk extraction. For the balance of 1 million families who are currently not using blenders for milk extraction, a video can be made on how to use blenders for coconut milk extraction.
21. Oil-free appliances such as air fryers can be introduced as a way to minimise the usage of oil in-home cooking.
22. Strategy to be made to disburse subsidies to 5% of total acres of coconuts planted (for 50,000 acres). Currently, only 3,000 acres are benefited from subsidies, which is only 0.3% of the total area under coconut.
23. Discourage selling of coconut oil as loose oil. Often sellers who are selling loose coconut oil, use palm oil to mix as a way of increasing the quantity of coconut oil sold , since the purchase of pure coconut oil is expensive.
    To produce 1 tonne of refined coconut oil, 3 acres of coconut cultivation is required. On the other hand, to produce 1 tonne of palm oil, only 1 acre of oil palm cultivation is required.
    As a result, costs associated with coconut production is 50% higher than palm oil production.
    To cater to imports of 200,000 tonnes of palm oil in Sri Lanka by supplying 200,000 tonnes of coconut oil, 1.7 billion additional coconuts are needed (for one tonne of coconut oil 8,500 nuts are needed).
    Where the current practice is selling coconut oil as loose oil, consumer authority officers can check the levels of iodine to guarantee customer safety.
    • Iodine levels of coconut oil range from 8-12
    • Iodine levels of palm oil range from 56-60
    • When coconut oil is mixed with palm oil, the iodine levels go up 25-30.