2023 WORLD COCONUT DAY

WORLD COCONUT DAY – “Building a Safe Inclusive Resilient and Sustainable Coconut Community Amid Covid-19 Pandemic & Beyond.”

This significant recognition and observation only began in 2009. Although it has been noted that this fruit has been consumed for at least 2000 years and has many nutritional benefits and values. It is assumed that coconuts are indigenous to Indonesia and the name means “Walnut from India”.

Coconuts, from the water to oil and the food they offer to humans have provided sustenance for generations and it is felt that the introduction to the Western Hemisphere was made possible through the explorers and travelers like Marco Polo.

The Ministry of Agriculture, moreso, the Forestry Unit, probably had an insight or premonition pertaining to the sustainability of this precious fruit and ingeniously planned, developed and created a resilience programme to mitigate and counteract the adverse effects on the COCONUT PRODUCTION on Antigua and Barbuda.

On 29th September, 2022 the Forestry Unit withing the Ministry of Agriculture launched a Coconut Rehabilitation with the intention to distribute three thousand coconuts for propagation purposes only within two years. To date an estimated amount of twenty-one hundred coconuts have been distributed throughout five agricultural districts.

With 60% of the coconuts already distributed it is anticipated that the remaining 40% will also be distributed by the end of 2023. For any information pertaining to the Coconut Rehabilitation Programme, please contact the Forestry Unit, located on the ground floor in the old PDO Building, or via telephone at #764-1272.