The Ministry of Agriculture and Plantation Industries has decided to popularize arecanut cultivation as an export crop.
The Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industry Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera advised the Department of Export Agriculture to start a program to popularize the cultivation of arecanut as an export crop, which is currently spread all over the country as an intercrop and not as a plantation crop.
The Minister mentioned this while addressing a discussion held at the Ministry of Agriculture yesterday (18).
Accordingly, arrangements have been made to distribute 1.7 million arecanut seedlings among farmers for free this year. For this purpose, the amount expected to be spent by the Ministry of Agriculture and Plantation Industries is 37.5 million rupees.
At present, the arecanut cultivation in this country is spread over 13,000 hectares. But in no place is it widely grown as a plantation crop and is cultivated as an intercrop. In addition to the local species of arecanut, the Department of Agriculture has introduced several species of arecanut that can yield 1000 nuts per year from one tree. Matale Sinha, Matale Chatura and Matale Raja are special arecanut.
Apart from this, the local arecanut, Rata puwak, and Hamban puwak are also widely cultivated.
Our country receives an income of 50 million USDs per month by exporting arecanut and an income of 500 million US dollars is currently earned annually.
In the year 2021, 23,890 metric tons of betel nuts will be exported in Sri Lanka and 24,323 metric tons have been exported in 2022. In the year 2023, by exporting 34,771 tons of arecanut, the income received by this country is 86,680 million rupees.
The minister pointed out that due to the lack of proper attention paid to the cultivation of arecanut, which can earn such a large amount of foreign exchange; it is a problem that arecanut plantations are not popular as a crop.
The Minister of Agriculture instructed the Department of Export Agriculture to inform the farmers about the possibility of using uncultivable paddy land in the Western Province for the cultivation of arecanut and especially to carry out arecanut cultivation in every place where it can be cultivated.
The Minister further expressed his views and emphasized that arecanut cultivation is a cultivation that does not incur any expenses and is a cultivation that is not harmed by wild animals or other insect diseases. He also mentioned that no proper study has been done on the life span of an arecanut tree and the period when it ends bearing fruit, especially in arecanut cultivation, which does not require fertilizers or pesticides.
The Minister also said that priority will be given this year to popularize the cultivation of arecanut as an export crop that can earn a lot of foreign exchange.
