Wakenaam farmers focusing on large-scale coconut cultivation

Farmers on the island of Wakenaam, Region Two, are focusing on large-scale cultivation of coconut so as to cash-in on the demand for the commodity in the region and further afield. The farmers told Guyana Times International that rice cultivation on the island is facing troubling times, and as such, they have switched their attention to coconut cultivation.
Coconut farmers from Marias Pleasure, Wakenaam, said they are cultivating huge acres of coconut, with one farmer, Diabee Persaud informing this publication that he is cultivating 10 acres alone.
Persaud said the main reason for planting more coconut on the Island is due to the easy access to market.
Persaud said coconut plants need less attention and the price for a coconut on the market is increasing.
The farmer, who also cultivates rice, said his coconut farm gives him less trouble than his rice field.
He said marketing rice on the island is “troublesome”, pointing out that there is only one major buyer of paddy on the island. On the contrary, he said, there is a ready market for coconut, with a price of Gy$ 20 per nut.
While on the island, Guyana Times International caught up with two major coconut buyers, who said they have secured a market for dried coconut in Dominica.
According to Gomattie Persaud, on a weekly basis, she purchases in excess of 200,000 tonnes of dried coconuts from the island.
Persaud said she managed to secure the market in Dominica, where she supplies a company on West Coast of Demerara, and it in turn incurred the expenses of shipping the coconut to Dominica.
She has been purchasing dried coconut on the island for some seven years, and during those years, Persaud said her business has been doing well.
The businesswoman said she has encouraged many persons on the island to get involved in coconut cultivation as there is a demand for the commodity in the region.
Persaud currently has 10 persons in her employ, whom she said carefully select and grade the coconuts.
Another large-scale coconut buyer, Deodad Singh, who was visiting the island to make his purchase, said he purchases over 40,000 tonnes of dried coconuts from the island every week.
He also supplies the Dominican market. Like Persaud, he grades the coconuts and pays similar prices.
Singh has been buying coconut from the island for the past two years.
Farmers said they enjoy planting coconut since it is marketable and it can grow easily on the island. Due to the ready marketing opportunities on the island, many farmers are putting more and more lands under coconut cultivation.