Divineguma transformed estate sector lives

Nadira Gunatilleke

Earlier hard working men in the estate sector went to the bar after finishing their day's work but now they go straight to their fish ponds. This change came about through Divineguma, Divineguma National Programme Director Jayatilleke Herath told the ' Daily News ' yesterday. He said it saves a large amount of money spent on liquor while improving the nutrition of the family, According to Herath the Economic Development Ministry implemented 6,109 fishery projects last year. It is hard to find fresh fish in the Nwara Eliya district.

But now fresh fish is freely available in Nuwara Eliya due to the fish ponds project they have implemented.

In the past people in the estate sector ran to the nearest bar or 'spot' to have an illicit drink after a hard day's work but now they run to Goat keeping achieved the same progress during 2012. Herath pointed out that the ministry promotes various types of home based small industries such as garages, making mats, pottery etc." "We selected 18,572 families and gave assistance to 12,206 families to carry out various industries. Our objective is to establish some sort of small home-based industry in every household. It will strengthen the National economy .

"We distributed a large number of fruit plants," Herath said.

Distributing milking cows also became popular.

This also improves the nutrition of the family while improving their income. Now the private sector has commenced a programme to deliver fresh milk to homes.

The programme is in progress in Colombo.

We do not need to import cows to increase milk production. We can improve the milk production by keeping cows in a restricted area as in foreign countries where cows are fed systemically.

We constructed 5,292 cow sheds. Now the Economic Development Ministry uses fresh milk and this should be started by all state institutions to set an example to the other institutions, he added.