Chenkaladi farmer earns Rs.3.5Mn. income from pomegranate cultivation

With the technical and financial assistance of the Agriculture Sector Modernization Project (ASMP) under the Ministry of Agriculture and Plantation Industries, pomegranate cultivation in Chenkaladi, Batticaloa has been extremely successful.

No steps have been taken to grow pomegranate as a crop in the Batticaloa district before. But after confirming that there is a suitable environment for growing pomegranates with the sea breeze in Batticaloa, Dr. Rohan Wijekoon, Director of the ASMP Project, started pomegranate cultivation as a 10-acre pilot project in Chenkaladi, Palawai area.

This type of pomegranate is the famous variety of pomegranate called Bhagavan grown in India.

The cultivation was carried out in the High Density Double Raw System and the necessary technical and financial support was provided by the Agricultural Sector Modernization Project.

Several farmers planted half an acre each in this pomegranate field and harvesting is currently underway in that pomegranate field.

All these farmers have earned a high income within 06 months since they started harvesting crops and Mr. Udayakumar, who cultivated pomegranates in Palavai area, has earned the highest income of 3.5 million rupees from pomegranate cultivation in half an acre, according to the Agriculture Sector Modernization Project, Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries Mahinda Mr. Amaraweera was informed yesterday (12).

According to the Agriculture Sector Modernization Project, this amount has been earned from the first harvest of pomegranate cultivation in Batticaloa, and it is possible to earn income from this cultivation for another 20 years, and by the time the cultivation ends, one farmer can earn at least Rs. 60 million.

At present, pomegranates are not produced in this country in the quantity required by the country, so a large quantity is imported. For that, a large amount of foreign exchange is attracted to foreign countries. But the fact that pomegranate cultivation is expanding rapidly in the country will enable the country to produce the required amount of pomegranate in the coming period.

Two new varieties of pomegranate introduced by the Department of Agriculture, Mali Pink and Lanka Red, have been successfully cultivated in Kalpitiya. In addition, Minister Mahinda Amaraweera advised the Agriculture Sector Modernization Project to take steps to further expand the cultivation of pomegranate in Batticaloa.

Accordingly, arrangements have been made to select twenty more farmers.

A farmer in the private sector in the Tissamaharama area is currently successfully cultivating pomegranates.

According to the Agriculture Sector Modernization Project, it is a special matter that these pomegranates, which are high in taste and quality, are second to imported pomegranates.

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