‘Need to establish coconut farms in the West’

MINISTER for Agriculture Dr Mahendra Reddy has urged villagers in the Western Division to plant five to 10 acres of coconut.

He said currently copra was produced in large quantities in the province of Cakaudrove and Taveuni.

“In the Western Division, we are desperately wanting to establish coconut farms at the moment, currently scattered trees are growing around us,” he said.

“We could have 10 coconut trees growing here and another 10 coconut trees growing over there but what we don’t have here in the West are coconut farms or plantations like we have in Vanua Levu, Cakaudrove, and particularly in Taveuni.”

He said copra was selling at a high price because of its export value.

“So this is the time we need to establish coconut farms, we are now establishing coconut farms in the Western Division and our offer stands for this area and each village, if you establish five acres in each village or 10 acres, our offer stands, tell us and we will get you the seed nuts.”

“We’ve brought coconut seedlings, Malaysian Dwarf, Hybrid and Fiji Tall, these three varieties are to be given to each village, and each village will be getting 100 coconut seedlings each.

“If you want to have a coconut farm, we are happy to develop it and to give you that level of support, whether you want 1000 seed nuts or 2000 or 4000 seed nuts we will give you all of this at no cost but we want you to get ready, get your land ready and tell us.”

The Coconut Program had an allocation of $150,000 in the 2021-2022 National Budget to help promote coconut farming in the Western Division.