The Agriculture Ministry has decided to recall the guns given to cultivators of the Kurunegala district to protect their crops from wild animals as they have not used these guns for the past two years.
Kurunegala District Assistant Director of Agriculture M.L. Premaratne said the guns were given to these cultivators to protect their coconut harvests and other export crops from monkeys, porcupines and giant squirrels. However, a recent survey conducted by the Ministry of Agriculture has revealed that cultivators had not used those guns to drive away the wild animals that destroy the coconut harvests and other crops.
Therefore, the permits given to the cultivators to use guns will be cancelled forthwith.
He told a meeting of cultivators of the Kurunegala district that during the first six months of last year, the coconut harvests of the Kurunegala, Puttalam and Ratnapura districts had been badly affected due to the threats of wild animals. Nearly, 24,038 hectares of coconut lands in the Kurunegala district had been affected by wild animals and the country lost 42 million coconuts. According to the latest survey conducted by the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute, coconuts are the most affected crop by wild animals.
Nearly 150,000 coconut seedlings that had been planted in lands of the Kurunegala district had been destroyed by porcupines during the past six months, he said.
The Coconut Cultivation Board will conduct 1,500 educational programs this year for 150,000 small- scale coconut land owners countrywide to educate them on how coconut plants should be looked after and nursed for better harvests.