Need to cultivate land stressed

by L. S. A. Wedaarachchi

The neglected bareland or uncultivated land can be given to people who are willing to cultivate, Minister of Plantation Industries, D. M. Jayaratne told a media briefing at the Galle Face Hotel.

He said that under the Agrarian Development Act 2000 which he presented the Government has the power to give land to people who are willing to cultivate.

He said that two blocks of land in Udapalata and Doluwa in his electorate have been gazetted for the purpose. "According to the report a lot of land belonging to some of the plantation companies are not being cultivated.

The replanting activities have not been done systematically. That has affected productivity of the plantation sector, he said.

Explaining the productivity of the Sri Lanka Tea industry, the minister said that while the smallholder sector gets 1,867 kgs per ha, the estate sector gets only 1,358 kgs per ha.

The minister said that he has already presented a Cabinet paper to appoint a Presidential Commission to look into the reasons for the decrease in productivity of the tea estate sector.

The world production of tea the world over falls short by 15 per cent. As a reputed tea producing country Sri Lanka should take all steps to cultivate tea as much as possible and promote the drinking tea habit in the world, he said.