From 2019, the current Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries, Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera, who served as the then Minister of Environment, took steps to include a national tree planting at auspicious time as a new auspicious ritual in the Sinhala and Tamil New Year auspicious sheet.
Initiated with the aim of increasing Sri Lanka’s forest cover to 30 percent, this auspicious ritual was taken to be named Nakathata Pelayak – A breath to the nation. Accordingly, the program of planting saplings was started under the theme of “Nekathata Pelayak”. After that, Minister Mahinda Amaraweera took steps to continue this ritual as a national program.
In the year 2024, the auspicious time of planting the national saplings is on 18 April at 10.16 a.m. in conjunction with the Sinhala and Tamil New Year celebrations.
The planting of seeds for the Nekathata Pelayak program was done yesterday (20) morning at the Ministry of Agriculture to get the plants needed for the national planting auspicious time. There, plants used for gardening as well as banana plants prepared in the method of tissue culture were planted with the participation of the minister and other officials.
Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries Mr. Mahinda Amaraweera, Minister of State for Livestock Mr. D.B. Herath, Minister of State for Agriculture Mr. Mohan Priyadarshana de Silva as well as Secretary of the Ministry Mr. Janaka Dharmakeerthi and Commissioner General of Agricultural Development Mr. A.M.H. L. Abeyratne also participated.
Speaking at the press conference held here, the Minister stated that the Department of Agrarian Development has planned to plant 100,000 gardens and the Department of Agriculture has planned to plant 30,000 gardens in conjunction with the auspicious plant program on April 18.
He also mentioned that the Small Tea Estate Development Authority has planned to plant 01 million tea plants and the Department of Export Agriculture has planned to plant 1.7 million arecanut saplings.
Also, the minister requested the people to take steps to plant any fruit-bearing plant in order to grow the vegetables or vegetables they want in their own garden.
The Minister who further commented-
I request all the people to take steps to planting plants that are good for the environment as well as vegetables and fruits that can be eaten on a daily needs, which will help to increase our forest cover this year.
Agriculture departments have emphasized that the price of vegetables is likely to rise again by next June. This may be due to the current drought. Therefore, the minister also mentioned that it is very important to plant any vegetable or fruit plants in their gardens.
