A delegation from the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago visited the Coconut Development Board (CDB) office to explore the possibility of getting technical expertise in coconut cultivation and processing .
The delegation led by Mr Nadeer Baksh, Director, Agricultural Services, and Mr Nigel A. Grimes, Programmes co-ordinator/Advisor from the Ministry of Food production, Land and Marine Affairs, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, sought technical expertise of the Board for developing coconut plantations for improving yield and for undertaking value addition through coconut processing.
The technical team visited coconut clusters, demonstration-cum-seed production farms, co-operative societies and coconut processing units to get an overall view of the coconut industry. The officials visited the DSP Farm, Neriamangalam and had discussions with the board officials on various cultivation practices, hybridisation techniques and different coconut varieties.
They also held discussions with the Chairman, Director and senior officials of CDB on possible areas of cooperation between the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and the Union Ministry of Agriculture.
The main areas on which expertise was sought were the mitigation of red palm mite affected coconut gardens in their country through biological, chemical and mechanical measures, replanting the coconut garden with disease tolerant coconut varieties, transfer of good genetic material/germ plasm of high yielding varieties of coconut/tender coconut varieties, training on coconut palm climbing and specific consultancy services for the overall development of coconut industry.
The delegation also requested the Board to send a technical team to visit their country.
The CDB Chairman said the board would share all technical services available for the benefit of the coconut industry in Trinidad and Tobago.