Government has taken action to increase production and boost exports through the productive use of a vast extent of unutilised and unproductively used estate land.
According to government sources, vast tracts of land belonging to the Janatha Estate Development Board, Sri Lanka State Plantation Corporation, and the Land Reform Commission (LRC) remains unutilised for a long time due to various reasons such as legal issues, institutional conflicts, lack of capital, etc.
“There are possibilities for the productive use of such lands for the betterment of the economy. Accordingly, measures have been taken to allow investors to productively utilise the land to increase both production and exports,” sources said.
Plans to dispose of State lands were also mentioned in the 2023 and 2024 Budgets.
Preliminary activities related to the disposal of State lands were carried out by District Secretaries through Divisional Secretaries and later those duties were also allocated to the Sri Lanka Mahaweli Authority and the LRC.
It has also been ascertained that underutilised lands could be given on a lease basis to selected investors with the potential to grow export crops, raise livestock farms for export and produce other export goods and services.
A Plantation reform programme has been prepared by the Non-Cabinet Minister of State Plantation Enterprise Reform to effectively utilise such lands to benefit communities by involving local entrepreneurs.
The Cabinet approved the Proposal presented by the President for the implementation of this project.
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