First mango cultivation zone to be established in Dambulla and Jaffna

Thursday, 27 September 2018 01:13 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Ministry of Agriculture has decided to establish the first mango cultivation zone targeting Dambulla and Jaffna areas.

The mango cultivation zone will be established under the accelerated agriculture development program, “We Grow – We Eat”, implemented under the guidance of the Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera to establish specific crop zones.

The objective of establishing the agricultural crop zones is to identify the crops grown in each area and to give priority to cultivate the crop.

The mango cultivation zone in Dambulla and Jaffna areas will be the first agricultural crop zone to be set up under the program.

The agriculture zone will be established under the World Bank assisted Agricultural Modernisation Project implemented by the Agriculture Ministry and 100,000 saplings of Tom & JC mango variety will be planted. In the first stage 12,500 saplings will be planted in Dambulla.

Tom & JC variety of mango is easy to cultivate and grows well in both dry and wet zones of the island. Since this variety bears fruit all year around there is a high demand for the fruit both locally and globally.

Therefore, the cultivation of this mango will be carried out targeting the export market and the farmers will also be able to earn a high extra income to improve their livelihoods.

The first mango cultivation zone, set up in Dambulla and Jaffna, will be inaugurated on 28 September with the participation of Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera, in Dambulla.