Measures to make country self-sufficient in green gram

Ishara MUDUGAMUWA

The Agriculture Ministry plans to make Sri Lanka self sufficient in green gram, said Agriculture Minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardane at the progress review meeting held recently at the ministry.

Minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardane on an inspection tour to green gram cultivated lands in Hambantota.

“Sri Lanka has become self sufficient in rice and maize. If the country becomes self sufficient in green gram, we can utilise the money spent on green gram imports to enhance the production of other food crops.” he said.

The Agriculture Ministry has taken measures to promote green gram cultivation in the Hambanthota district as short term cultivation for the third season to meet the country’s green gram requirement.

“The country’s present green gram requirement is 25,000 metric tons and this project is expected to yield 10,000 metric tons of green gram this year from 10,000 hectares of green gram cultivated lands in the Hambanthota district.” the minister said.

The Agriculture Department has introduced high yielding short term green gram varieties called MI 5 and MI 6.

The department plans to enhance the soil fertility of paddy fields by cultivating green gram in paddy fields.

According to agriculture experts, this green gram cultivation process will help absorb atmospheric nitrogen to the soil.

It will help enhance the nitrogen content in the soil and create fertile soil for the Maha cultivation season.

Green gram cultivation can be done without using chemical fertilizer as all plant remnants can be used to produce organic fertilizer.

Production cost for green gram cultivation is low as farmers have to spend money only for buying seeds. Eight kilogrammes of seed can be cultivated in an acre.

About 400 kg of green gram can be produced from an acre of land after two months. Farmers can earn Rs. 80,000 from an acre of green gram cultivated land by selling their produce at Rs. 200 per a kilo.