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| Monday, 9 August 2004 |
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Rs.300m sunflower cultivation project to be set up by Lionel Yodhasinghe Three villages - Aralaganwila in Polonnaruwa, Dambulla and Malimbada in Matara have been earmarked for an initial Rs. 300 million sunflower cultivation projects and oil-extracting plant to provide earning opportunities for over 12,000 rural youth, Chairman of Lanka Edible Oils Pvt Ltd. (LEOPL) Ranjith Kumarasinghe said. Kumarasinghe, a chemical engineer who obtained training in manufacturing and management systems in Japan said that his company has already started pilot projects in these areas and added that as extracting and bottling plant will be set up soon with the full implementation of the project.
He said that unemployment is a burning issue for any Government as providing employment to rural youth has become a social problem today especially due to lack of guidance and necessary counseling. Youth should be assisted properly to make them productive. Apart from the business interest, the company aims to use this excessive rural labour on manufacturing process, which would also strengthen the economic policies of the Government. "I consider labour as a valuable resource and my aim is to give it its due place and I hope I have chosen the right type of project in the national interest", Kumarasinghe told the Daily News. He said that over 35,000 acres in Malimbada lay idle due to the engineering blunders of the Nilvala river project and the LEOPL's pilot project in Malimbada will test whether such land could be used for other cultivations including paddy than sunflower. "I am confident that I can do it with a chemical process", Kumarasinghe said. He said that large land areas lay idle in other parts of the country especially in the dry zone, as water is not available to do any cultivation. The company has planned to use such land on sunflower cultivation as the plant can be grown in dry areas. He said that grass roots level politicians are invited to mobilise enthusiastic youth to join in this project as out-growers and the company is ready to provide them with hybrid varieties of seeds, assistance to obtain loans through the Central Bank under the Forward Buying Agreement and guarantee to buy their harvest at a fixed price. Having joined the scheme, a hardworking family can earn an income of over Rs. 15,000 per month as LEOPL has planned to operate throughout the year, he said. Average local market price of any imported edible oil, which could probably be adulterated, is around Rs. 225 per litre today. But the LEOPL is determined to supply original sunflower oil at Rs. 175 per litre, Kumarasinghe said. He said that health counsellors highly recommend sunflower oil especially for those who have cardiac problems, as it is unsaturated and as a result there is a huge demand for sunflower oil locally and internationally today. Kumarasinghe who had done experiments extensively on edible oils manufacturing in Sri Lanka hopes to expand the cultivation upto 10,000 acres under the first stage. Sri Lanka spends over Rs. 1.5 billion to import edible oil annually and such large foreign exchange could be saved if edible oil such as sunflower oil is manufactured locally. "I believe this could be done if we work on this project," Kumarasinghe said. |
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