Coconut board in Junagadh to help farmers adopt new tech

Rajkot: Junagadh got state’s first office of Coconut Development Board on Friday when Union minister for agriculture and farmers welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar, inaugurated it on the occasion of World Coconut Day.
Addressing the coconut-growing farmers at the event organized in Junagadh Agriculture University, Tomar said, “This office will help farmers in increasing cultivation of coconut in the region, especially on the coastal belt of the state. The farmers will get help in getting a good crop besides benefitting from various government schemes.”
The office had been a long pending demand of the farmers of Gir-Somnath district. According to the experts, this will boost research on coconut, breeding of various species of coconut that give more production and will also boost value-added product industries of coconut cultivation.
Gujarat minister of agriculture and animal husbandry, Raghavji Patel said, “After Kesar mango, the Saurashtra region will be at the top in coconut production too. Saurashtra has a good crop of coconut in its coastal areas including Mangrol, Chorwad, Maliya, Sutrapada, Gir Somnath, Porbandar and others.”
Gir-Somnath is the highest producer of coconut in Gujarat while the neighbouring Union territory of Diu too has a good coconut crop.