Rambodagalla aquatic plant tissue culture lab opens today

The opening ceremony of the Tissue Culture Lab established in Rambodagalla, Kurunegala to propagate aquatic plants will be held today.

Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said

the Tissue Culture lab was established to promote aquatic plant breeding in the country and also to increase foreign exchange earnings from the export of aquatic plants.

The country was able to earn Rs 5.6 million through the export of 52 metric tonnes of aquatic plants in 2017.

Following a research recently conducted on aquatic plants, a group of Japanese scientists has recommended that the Southern, Eastern, North Western and North Eastern coastal belts are suitable for aquatic plant breeding. The use of tissue culture technology in propagation of aquatic plants will result in the prevention of indiscriminate harvesting of endangered and indigenous flora from the wild.