Army, private sector in cultivation venture

The Sri Lanka Army, broadening its horizons further into large scale agro-industry, farming and dairy products entered into a joint cultivation venture with the Letsgrow (Pvt) Ltd for cultivation in selected Army-owned lands, farms and formations across the country after signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the lessee and the Sri Lanka Army early this week.

The new agreement with the private firm, which has potential buyers for agriculture products, both here and abroad is to provide state of the art foreign expertise and training opportunities to Army personnel on the latest agro-industry practices once they commence work on the farms.

The MoU in this connection was signed between Army Commander Lt Gen Jagath Jayasuriya and Letsgrow (Pvt) Ltd Director Promodya Wickramasinghe. The first agricultural farm of this nature is to see the light of the day at the Army's Kandekadu farm, covering some 3,000 acres as the pilot project of this agreement where the private firm is expected to grow bananas and pineapples providing employment to civil sector workers as the project reaches its full capacity within a few years with the support of the Army administration.

The project has received the fullest backing from Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, as the country, is now set to venture into many non-traditional crops as agricultural practices and methods in the world are fast changing with new innovative challenges.