Nestle Coconut Plan expands adding 1,000 more coconut farmers
The Nestle Coconut Plan has expanded to include 1,000 more rural farmers and outgrowers in the Horowpathana and Aralaganawila areas, providing them with 5,000 coconut plantlets.
With this new expansion, the Nestle Coconut Plan benefits a total of 3,000 Sri Lankan coconut farmers and outgrowers with 19,000 coconut plantlets and a number of other resources and support for successful coconut cultivation.
The Nestle Coconut Plan is a coconut development programme that was launched by Nestle and the Sri Lankan Coconut Cultivation Board in 2016. Its objective is to help enhance coconut cultivation in the face of declining coconut production, mainly resulting from extreme weather conditions and crop disease.
It offers programme participants free hybrid coconut plantlets that are expected to be more resilient than the regular variety, regular technical assistance for coconut growing, and intense training and development programmes.
It is also establishing model farms to help farmers and outgrowers benchmark best practices, and encourages intercropping to help participants grow other crops with a faster yield, to help sustain their income until the coconut plantlets mature and bear fruit.
“The government’s vision is to regain self-sufficiency in coconut. One of the ways we are working towards this is through strong public-private partnerships to encourage new farmers to the coconut industry, establish a homegardening concept with outgrowers, and improve farmer knowledge. Through the Nestle Coconut Plan, we look forward to strengthening our progress in developing the Sri Lankan coconut industry,” Coconut Cultivation Board Chairman Palitha Pelpola.
The Nestle Coconut Plan is facilitating coconut cultivation in both traditional and new experimental coconut growing areas. These include Wariyapola, Nikaweratiya, and Rasnayakapura within the traditional coconut triangle, and Padaviya, Vavuniya and Kebitigollewa in the North-central province and previously conflict-affected Northern province, which research and testing has shown to have good potential for successful coconut growing. The Plan also has set up four model farms in Nikaweratiya, Kebitigollewa, Horowpathana and Aralaganawila. All plantlets in the programme currently enjoy a 95-100 percent success rate, and the first batch of plants is expected to mature in 2021.Nestle Lanka is one of the world’s largest exporters of coconut milk powder. Made from Sri Lankan coconut, the product is exported to over 50 countries. It is manufactured in Nestle’s state-of-the-art factory in Kurunegala, where the company procures around 90 million Sri Lankan coconuts every year; indirectly providing a livelihood to more than 6,000 local coconut farming families.the Nestle Coconut Plan however is currently separate to the company’s commercial sourcing of coconut and focuses purely on developing coconut supply to meet domestic consumption needs.
“Nestle has a strong history and expertise in rural development, and in providing or facilitating agronomical support. We’re proud of our contribution to the local dairy industry over the years and hope to have the same positive impact in the coconut sector. With the Nestle Coconut Plan, our current aim is to support the government vision to achieve self-sufficiency in coconut, and help meet growing household demand by ensuring our growers can produce enough coconut to meet their own consumption needs and that of their surrounding community,” said Nestle Lanka Managing Director Fabrice Cavallin.