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| Sunday, 18 July 2004 |
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Tea, rubber, coconut researchers to work together by Hiran H.Senewiratne Minister of Plantation Industries Anura Priyadarshana Yapa requested all scientists attached to the three plantation research institutes to pool knowledge, experience and resources to encourage the sector to be globally competitive. "We are aware that no industry would prosper in the modern world without Research and Development," Minster Yapa said at the opening ceremony of Sri Lanka's first Plantation Crop Symposium, jointly organised by the Tea Research Institute, Rubber Research Institute and Coconut Research Institute, in Colombo. He said that our research institutes are going through a difficult time due to inadequate funding, shortage of qualified research and technical staff and outdated infrastructure facilities. The government is committed to address these problems and has given an assurance that would make every endeavour to solve these problems even with the limited resources, the Minister said. He said that this symposium would create tremendous opportunity for all scientists from the three research institutes to solve common problems encountered by the plantation industry He said that Sri Lanka needs to increase productivity in all three exports, which have suffered due to various natural disasters such as floods, droughts and pests and diseases, enabling other countries to overtake Sri Lanka. The future of the commercial crops such as these would depend on value- addition, which needs to add value to the raw material we produce, to ensure maximum benefits for our plantation crops, he said. "For this purpose, development boards of these three crops should join hands with their respective research institutes to create and design new products. This would maximize the earnings for the industry," the Minister said. Yapa also said that our smallholders who contributed to the sector are tremendous but face a weak capital position. Their productivity can be improved by creating the technology accessible. Local scientists could play a major role to support the small holders in the plantation sector with new technology. By working together they can gain that objective, he added. Secretary to the Ministry of Plantation Industries J. Abeywickrama said that the total land area covered under our main plantation crops amount to 777,000 hectares, which is 44.5 per cent of the total agricultural land area in Sri Lanka. He said that these three crops now contribute more than Rs 65 billion in US dollar terms 730 million by way of export earnings annually. The contribution of the plantation crops to the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) is 4.8 per cent and its total contribution to the national economy is much higher than that of agriculture exports. Regular interaction among all research institutes will enable the use of resources at an optimum level, Abeywickrama concluded. |
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