Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has exhorted the people to plant more coconut saplings in their own land so as to increase coconut yield in the State. He was speaking after inaugurating the Kerakeralam Samruddhakeralam project to revive coconut farming in the State at the Urban Wholesale Agricultural Market at Vengeri here on Saturday.
Target
However, Mr. Vijayan maintained that the possibility of the government establishing coconut plantations was less. But the government had taken concerted efforts in alliance with several agencies to distribute coconut saplings to increase the production of coconut. The target was to distribute two crore saplings within 10 years in the State. This would be achieved by distributing 75 saplings in each local body ward, the Chief Minister said.
In the first phase, the distribution of saplings would be done in selected 500 local bodies. This was due to the shortage of quality saplings. The situation was that Kerala had to depend on other States for coconut husk required for industrial production.
The Chief Minister inaugurated the distribution by handing a sapling to farmer Kappally Gopalan Nair of Nenmenda grama panchayat. He inaugurated a video programme and YouTube live streaming of the Farm Information Bureau on the occasion. This apart, he gave away the keys of the agricultural machinery to Agro Service Centres and Karma Senas.