Gampaha district to boost spice cultivation

Ivon Nissanka - Divulapitiya group correspondent

The Gampaha district Export Crops Cultivation Department has touched high progress last year on their development projects, Deputy Director of Export Cultivation Department W.A.K.G. Wickramasinghe said.

The Department expects to cultivate pepper expanding its plantation to 43 hectares, of which ginger was cultivated on a 38 hectares.

The cinnamon and turmeric crops are been popularized and these crops have been given considerable progress on analyzing reports Wickramasinghe said. Workshops covering all divisional secretaries in the Gampaha district and field days were implemented as ways to develop farmers harvest.

The use of Carbonic fertilizer is popular among the farmers due to low prices. Hence the Gampaha branch of the export crops development department has launched a compost project in the Divulapitiya area on a 25 acre land and steps will be taken to distribute compost fertilizer to farmers soon, deputy director said.

Under the Divi Neguma National Project the export crop department distributed 16,540 plants and 4,199 cinnamon plants to farmers in 2013.