Plantation policy presented

by Chanuka Mannaperuma

The National Plantation Industry policy for the plantation sector was presented last week at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute", Colombo . Plantation Industries Minister D. M. Jayaratne said, "until now, we did not have a documented national policy for the plantation industry and this will help to achieve long term sustainability of the sector. In Sri Lanka,the plantation sector comprises tea, rubber, coconut and also sugar, oil palm, cashew and palmyrah.

The main thrust of the plantation sector is to increase productivity and the profitability of the corporate and the small-holding sector of the plantation industry through product and market integration, aero-based industries aimed at long term sustainability.

The Minister said, it was an opportunity for Sri Lanka to cash in and make the optimum use of the situation with the current market trends.

The need is to produce quality tea. Even the rubber market has reached an all-time high and is steadily rising.

The market will continue to be so for the next twenty years as there is a massive demand for natural rubber.

The coconut industry has faced a major setback as many coconut lands are being fragmented to build houses, the Minister said. He appealed to all stakeholders to make every effort to do more planting, so that the plantation industry economy could be revived by replacing unproductive tea, rubber and coconut plantations with improved and high quality clones.

Ministry Secretary J. Abewickrama presented the first copy of the policy to Minister Jayaratne on the occasion.