Apparently the lies that are being spread by the afc/pnc that Guyana is a desolate poverty stricken land with no opportunities is debunked once again as we see water coconut is a viable industry. Maybe these coconut heads can take up coconut farming instead of spreading lies of Guyana's demise from their armchairs in the West. d2, cain, mitwah, jalil, warrior, god, redux, kari, churchill can all learn something instead of selling snake oil all day long.
Coconut farmers being trained on fertilization
The National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), an arm of the Agriculture Ministry, is currently working to sensitize farmers to the various technologies and strategies that they can use to improve on coconut production. Over the past few years, Guyana’s coconut has been on vast demand, especially on the international market. Earlier this year, during a press conference to highlight plans for the first quarter of 2013, Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy placed specific emphasis on the coconut industry, noting that measures will be put in place for major improvements. One of these included conducting training and education programmes geared to particularly the poorer farmers. It was noted that although there are many people who make a living by planting trees and selling coconuts, not many of them take time to groom and take care of the trees like they would other plants. Adrian Mangar, a NARI official, explained that coconut trees should be fertilized. “A not fertilized tree would give you about 20 to 25 nuts per bunch. This would be like nine to 10 bunch per year, and sometimes not all the nuts does stay on,” the man explained. He added that should farmers fertilize their trees, their outcome would be more. “If farmers do fertilize their trees, they get as much as 48 nuts per bunch.” Coconut farmers from the Pomeroon, Wakenaam and Mon Repos are currently involved in fertilization trials where NARI is seeking to better the outputs of coconut, and by extension, increase revenue. Minister Ramsammy had explained that Guyana’s coconuts contain one of the thickest kernels in the world. It is because of this that the Ministry of Agriculture has opted to make the coconut industry a priority for this year (2013). This newspaper understands that over 100,000 water nuts are required weekly to supply just the local market. In 2012, the Ministry established “research and development support” for value-added products from coconuts, so as to allow it to become more profitable. The ministry also hosted a coconut assessment meeting, allowing some new focus to be brought on to the coconut industry.
