National Award Distribution and World Coconut Day celebration 2016 at at Bhubaneswar

BHUBANESWAR:
Coconut Development Board is distributing its National Awards in various categories on 2 nd September on the occasion of World Coconut Day celebration at Bhubaneswar Odisha.
Radha Mohan Singh, Minister for Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare will distribute the national awards at Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of state Petroleum and Natural Gas, will preside over the function. Coconut Development Board has instituted a scheme of National Awards to recognize and promote excellence in coconut cultivation, innovative methods in coconut farming, product  development, product improvement, quality improvement, product diversification and marketing, export and skill development.
Pradeep Maharathy, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Animal Resources Development, Govt. of Odisha, Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Director General ICAR, S K Pattanayak, Secretary, Dept. of Agriculture,
Cooperation and Farmer’s Welfare, Government of India, Manoj Ahuja, Principal Secretary, Agriculture, Odisha, Dr. Prasanna Kumar Patasani, member of parliament (Lok Sabha), Thottta Narasingham, MP and Member CDB, will be the Guests of Honour. Dr.A.K.Singh, Chairman, CDB will deliver welcome address on the occasion.
All coconut growing countries in the Asia and Pacific region observe 2nd September as World Coconut Day every year. This is an occasion to review policies and formulate plan of action in this sector. APCCs theme for the World Coconut day 2016 is ‘Coconut, the tree of life Sustains family wellbeing’. The foundation day of the Asian and Pacific Coconut Community, an intergovernmental organization is observed as the World Coconut Day in the member countries.
APCC whose mission is to promote, coordinate and harmonize all activities of the coconut industry, at its
25th session held in November 1998 in, Vietnam decided that September 2nd , the day in which APCC was established be designated as the World Coconut Day. The objective of observing coconut day is to create increased awareness and importance of coconut and help focus national and international attention to this crop and to enhance its potential to alleviate poverty, encourage investment in the sector and promote the total development of coconut industry in the producing countries.
Around 400 farmers from all coconut growing states will take part in the function. An exhibition has also been arranged at the venue showcasing latest technologies in coconut sector and various value added coconut products. A technical session on theme topic is also arranged after the inaugural session which will be chaired by Dr. P. Chowdappa, Director CPCRI, Kasargod.
In Odisha coconut is cultivated in an area of 50679 ha with a production of 324.5 million nuts and productivity of 6404 nuts per ha. The state occupies fifth position in coconut production in India. Coconut is an important source of earning livelihood to the people of Odisha, especially in the coastal areas. More than 60 % of the coconut production in Odisha comes from 5 districts, i.e, Puri, Ganjam, Cuttack, Nayagarh and Khurda. Ninety nine percent of the coconut cultivated in the Odisha is
traditional tall coconut variety (Sakhigopal Local).