Two million fruit planting project gets under way

Lakshmi DE SILVA

A campaign to plant more than two million fruit plants has been organized by the Trade, Consumer Affairs Minister Bandula Gunawardhana.

The fruit plants will be given free of charge to members of cooperatives and Sanasa members. These will be planted at an auspicious time on Sinhala and Hindu New Year day.

Minister Gunawardhana distributed 1,000 fruit saplings at Dharmapala Hewawitharana Vidyalaya Rajagiriya, Women's Society and at Sanasa Pitipana branch yesterday.

Unlike the other tree planting projects the fruit tree plants will not only benefit humans but also animals. This is an eco-friendly step taken for the first time, the Minister told the Daily News.

"Each plant had been selected from the best and costs more than Rs. 150 but is distributed free. This is the only project where any country planted over two million plants at the same time. My intention is to plant 10 million fruit saplings at the second phase of the project next year," he said.

He said among the plants were mango, jak, breadfruit, durian, rambutan, pomegranate and coconut most were either budded or improved variety plants that would bear fruit in a short time, the Ministers said.