Coconut industry proposes fertiliser subsidies for growers
The coconut industry has proposed a subsidy scheme be provided to the coconut growers in the small and medium scale category over a three year period with an allocation of Rs.3,370 million.
Around 250,000 acres of coconut cultivation lands is being proposed to be provided the subsidy in 2025; 500,000 acres proposed to be covered during 2026 and 2027. The maximum amount per acre proposed to be allocated is Rs.45,000.
This proposed subsidy scheme is to act as a support scheme and will not cover the entire cost of each activity. However, it will be a sizable contribution to motivate commercial coconut farmers, industry officials from the Ceylon Chamber of Coconut Industries said.
An allocation of Rs.1,125 million is being proposed annually during the three year period and in total an allocation of Rs.3,370 million is to be made as subsidies for farmers. The proposal is to ensure that any coconut land will be provided the subsidy for a single year only.
It has been suggested to provide Adult Palm Mixture (APM) fertiliser to the farmer at Rs.4000 per 50 kg bag and Young Palm Mixture (YPM) fertiliser at Rs.5000 per 50 kg bag based on the number of productive trees.
It has been stated that according to the statistics there are about 45 million adult palms. And not more than 30 per cent of the growers have fertilised their lands prior to the inorganic fertiliser ban in 2021.
But during the last four years farmers have totally given up the application of fertiliser as a result of the non- availability of inorganic fertilisers, removal of the subsidy and skyrocketed fertiliser costs due to the economic crisis.
The industry has also proposed that in order to reach the proposed KPI of the coconut roadmap, it will be essential to encourage at least more than 50 per cent of the small and medium commercial growers to provide required nutrition to their plantations within the next three years. As per the draft KPI of the coconut roadmap, the country expects 70 nuts per palm per year from available palms by 2028.
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