The Coconut Development Board is likely to get land for setting up a research station-cum-coconut seed production centre in the district.
The Agriculture Department has decided to hand over 26.5 hectares of the department-owned land to the Coconut Development Board for setting up the required infrastructure, within the next few days.
First of its kind“The land will be given on lease to the Coconut Development Board for the project, which will be the first of its kind in the State,” Joint Director of Agriculture M.K. Sherif told The Hindu .
According to Mr. Sherif, the facility coming up will act as a three-in-one hub covering activities like research, production of high quality seed nuts and demonstration of scientific coconut cultivation and processing practices to the farmers.
Official sources added that the coconut seed production unit at the proposed centre would be helping the coconut farmers across the State to procure good quality planting materials of desired cultivars/ varieties suitable for their respective localities.
“This will help the farmers to get significantly enhanced yield, and profitability will go up,” agriculture department officials said. The research activities planned would focus mainly on studies about variety adaptability to specific conditions, water management technologies and development of more pest-resistant varieties.
“Improvement of nutrient management and few other areas of cultivation too will constitute the research,” agriculture officials said.
