By: Staff Writer
June 25, Colombo (LNW): The Department of Agriculture Department is planning to increase the production of banana, mango, papaya, pineapple and passion fruit by 2027.
Accordingly, the department is planning to increase banana production to 19.5 metric tons per hectare, mango production to 9.5 metric tons, papaya production to 45 metric tons, pineapple production to 14 metric tons and passion fruit production to 30 metric tons by 2027.
The Department’s Acting Director Dr. Kamani Ranatunga said that many technical measures have been planned for that purpose, such as variety breeding, hybrid variety breeding, high density cultivation, integrated pest control, the introduction of plant nutrients, the reduction of crop damage and the introduction of value-added production technology.
She said this while handing over the plan prepared by the Department for the growth of the agricultural sector in Sri Lanka by 2027 to Minister Mahinda Amaraweera today.
Accordingly, the consumption of fruits in Sri Lanka had increased to 12.8 million metric tons (1,283,039 metric tons) in 2023, Dr. Ranatunga said.
“The annual requirement of fruits in this country is 19.6 million metric tons (196,9371 metric tons). There was a notable increase in the production of bananas, mangoes, pineapples and papayas. The export of fruits has also increased in 2023, and 38,201 metric tons of fruits have been exported,” she said.
Meanwhile, Minister Amaraweera said that it is a national responsibility to save the foreign exchange spent on importing fruits that can be grown in the country.
When looking at the increase in the production of fruits in 2023, the increase in the production of bananas, mangoes, pineapples and papayas is notable, says the Department of Agriculture.
In order to uplift the economy of the poor farming community in 4 electorates (Nawalapitiya, Gampola, Udunuwara and Hewaheta) in the Kandy District, a sum of Rs. 700 million (aid of Rs. 5 hundred thousand per family) was provided to 2000 families for the ‘cultivation of fruits for export market.’
The ‘Innovation Project’ was being implemented under World Bank Aid. The specialty here is the cultivation of these products directly for export market.
It is also planned to provide the farmer with technical knowledge and understanding required for high quality products, drip water technology and plants with yielding capacity to produce high quality production that can meet the demand of foreign markets.
Under this, 4 well equipped State-of-The-Art Processing Centers have been set up for those electorates towards a suitable supply chain for those products.
Under this project, fruits like banana, guava, pineapple and avocado had been cultivated for export purposes.
The project will also cover 12 more districts in Sri Lanka. Under this, work has already commenced in 05 districts.
