National Plantation Awards on Thursday

Rasika Somarathna

The inaugural National Plantation Awards to recognize and reward excellence in the plantation industries will be held on 12th July (Thursday) at Temple Trees, under the patronage of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The initiative, a concept of Minister of Plantation Industries, Mahinda Samarasinghe is to recognize the contribution of growers, industrialists and entrepreneurs of the plantation sector and reward them by presenting National Awards. Under various categories, 91 awards will be presented.

Minister Samarasinghe told media yesterday that an award ceremony to recognize and reward excellence in the plantation sector on such a scale, was being held for the first time in Sri Lanka.

Calling the initiative as one which will fill an existing void the minister said that although the sector was considered as one of the pillars of Sri Lankan economy, a mechanism to recognize and reward those contribute towards its success had been lacking. He said that it was the government's responsibility to appreciate their contribution and the national awards was an effort in this direction.

The Minister said that there were around 450,000 tea small holders in Sri Lanka and a further 1.5 million plus workers in large scale tea estates.