Six year plan to promote production

COLOMBO: The Export Agriculture Department has drawn up a six year plan to promote production and export of spices, Department's Assistant Director (Communication and trade) Dr. Jayananda Weerasinghe said.

Sri Lanka now earns Rs 12. million in foreign exchange annually through the export of 30,000 metric tons of spices. It is hoped to increase these exports to 50,000 metric tons through this plan, he said.

The plan envisages several incentives to farmers to help them increase cultivations. This includes the provision of planting material, fertiliser, technical known-how and training, he added.

It also involved the processing of spices in a manner suitable to the export market in a central processing centre under a 'Cluster farm system development program'.