Eastern farmers go for potatoes, pineapples
Lakshmi de Silva
For the first time in the Eastern Province farmers have started to
grow potatoes and pineapple in addition to paddy cultivation, animal
husbandry and minor infrastructure projects.
This is with community participation under the guidance and
assistance from Jaica technical cooperation project for agricultural and
rural development for rehabilitation and reconstruction, its officer in
charge of Institutional Development Nanakubo told Daily News yesterday.
“We expected a yield of 10,000 kilograms of potatoes but received
only six to seven thousand kilograms per acre. The project was started
three years ago in the Trincomalee district in Kuchchaveli, Morawewa and
Thampalagama within six Grama Niladhari Divisions. Already 18,000
households have benefitted from the project,” he said.
“We do not want the people to be dependent on others but to make them
self-sufficient with the produce they were reaping using proper methods.
“Therefore we at the Jaica office at Trincomalee provides assistance
to these communities with workshops and appropriate technologies to
improve their produce, he said.”
“Under this Jaica Trincap project we select 10 to 15 farmers at the
beginning in one division and then we expand it with time in a revolving
system automatically so that the resources such as livestock or
agricultural inputs pass on to the next group of the community,” he
said. |