The Kalutara–Beruwala Police Special Task Force (STF) divisions recently launched a massive agriculture development programme in the Mahawelyaya area, Beruwala, on par with the Government’s newly launched agricultural drive, by developing a five-acre marshy land to plant coconut saplings.
According to the STF, headed by DIG Waruna Jayasundara this new cultivation programme is carried out in abandoned marshy lands in the Beruwala area.
DIG Jayasundara said this nature of endemic cultivations on marshy lands are currently being carried out successfully in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
A large number of area divisional secretaries, agricultural development officers and villagers attended the cultivation drive and planted over 100 coconut saplings as the initial step of the programme.
DIG Jayasundara said our country has large extents of marshy lands which have been neglected by cultivators and this new cultivation drive in the Kalutara district will be an encouragement to other districts.
He said in addition to coconut cultivation, a large portion of marshy lands in the same area will be utilized for floriculture, horticulture and vegetable cultivation as well as for rearing varieties of inland fish.
This new vegetable, floriculture and horticulture cultivation project will highly benefit a large number of unemployed youth in the respective districts where a large extent of marshy lands are neglected by people, he said.
Meanwhile the Agriculture Ministry highlighted the importance of cultivating bare lands to grow varieties of agricultural crops including yams, breadfruit, jak and vegetables to face any food shortage in the future.
Agriculture Ministry Secretary Rohana Pushpakumara said Ministry officials have already identified large extent of bare lands countrywide that belong to the Agriculture Department and also the Lands Department.
He said he has already taken necessary action to allocate such lands to people on temporary basis to start cultivating suitable crops including green gram, cowpea, corn and yams.
Add new comment