Coconut industry faces financial and land issues

The local coconut industry has a huge production potential, however, its faced numerous challenges over the years, including sufficient financing and land issues.

Chief Executive Officer of Kokonas Indastri Kopereisen [KIK], Alan Aku said they had taken a bold step in recent years to rehabilitate coconut plantations around the country, especially in areas of conducting a national coconut census and appraisal.

However, Mr. Aku outlined that amidst its efforts, the agency has been slapped with financial constraints to implement its programs, including illegal settlement in coconut plantations.

"You go in there and you try to survey the plantation and they'll chase you with the most knife. They'll tell you, we've been here for generations. And so we need to address land issues in plantations.

"We need large capital investment on rehabilitation of plantations. We're not going to play with small money," Mr. Aku said.

Noting the huge potential of the sector, Mr. Aku is calling on the National Government to intervene and ensure the agency achieves its aim of revitalizing coconut plantations.

He said this one day whole of government roundtable on agriculture, rural and regional development aimed at addressing longstanding barriers to service delivery and rural development, is timely and important to note the progress towards the National Agriculture Development Plan 2024-2033 and the Medium Term Development Plan 4.

National Planning Secretary, Koney Samuel also attended this event and assured that the government will work together with the agriculture sector in addressing these concerns.

He admits that more money is needed to grow this important sector.

"We have to rehabilitate those big plantations in the country, but they need money and that's a big challenge that we have," Mr Samuel said.