Category: Agriculture

Aug 10, 2011 (LBO) – Farmers in Trincomalee in eastern Sri Lanka are growing sea bass in cages as part of a larger aquaculture project involving 1,300 people who will also grow mussels and oyster, with help from the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The US embassy in Colombo said over 50 percent of […]

Aug 10, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Bairaha Farms, a poultry group said net profits fell 47 percent to 55. 1 million rupees in the June 2011 quarter with revenues down 01 percent to 565 million rupees. The firm reported earnings of 3. 45 rupees per share for the quarter. Sri Lanka’s poultry stocks have […]

Aug 10, 2011 (LBO) – The International Labour Organization is helping a co-operative society in northern Sri Lanka rebuild a war-damaged rice mill, which will process paddy produced by 2,000 farmers in the area. The mill in Nadunkerni, Vavuniya, can process 4,000 metric tonnes of paddy (unhusked rice) a year, creating 20 jobs. The ILO […]

July 30, 2011 (LBO) – Vietnam is ready to send experts to Sri Lanka to transfer aquaculture knowledge and techniques to grow seaweed, lobster and sea-cucumber, visiting minister Vu Van Tam said in Colombo. “We can send out technicians or experts to help Sri Lanka,” deputy minister Tam said. “Or we are ready to receive […]

July 28, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s John Keells Holdings backed by the US Agency for International Development will build a ‘cold chain’ to bring fishery and agricultural produce from former war torn regions to the market. Sri Lanka’s Hayleys group and USAID are also involved in a project to grow and export fruits and […]

July 25, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is expecting inland fish production to rise 15 percent to 60,000 tonnes in 2011, and is targeting 90,000 tonnes by 2013 backed by a program to push up production, officials said. Rohana Subasinghe, senior fishery resource officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization said Asia accounted for about […]

July 23, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s plantations industries ministry is exploring the possibility of introducing a compulsory auction system for rubber like the tea industry, plantations industries minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said. “The government has decided to investigate the possibility of having a compulsory auction system like what we have in the tea industry also […]

July 22, 2011 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s tea crop is steady at the half-year mark although there was a dip in June, with global tea statistics showing a big shortfall in East Africa while output is up in India, brokers said. The production of low grown teas, which make up over half the crop, was […]

HANOI, July 15, 2011 (AsiaPulse) – Vietnam and Sri Lanka have agreed on a number of measures to strengthen bilateral cooperation, especially in agricultural development. During talks between Vietnamese Minister of Agricultural and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat and Sri Lankan Minister of Agriculture Mahianda Yapa Abeywardana in Hanoi on July 13, the two sides […]

July 13, 2011 (LBO) – Labour productivity on Sri Lankan tea estates has to be improved if regional plantations companies are to survive and afford wage hikes in future, industry officials said. Lalith Obeysekere, chairman of the Planters’ Association which represents regional tea plantations companies, said the island’s tea estates had higher production costs and […]

July 12, 2011 (LBO) – A group of agro firms have warned that Sri Lanka may run short of pesticides for the next growing season unless a controversy over the presence of arsenic is resolved quickly with independent testing. ‘Croplife Sri Lanka’ an industry grouping representing 26 agro chemical firms said arsenic is not an […]

July 03, 2011 (LBO) – State-run Sri Lanka Cashew Corporation is losing money, has low productivity of its lands, and is depending on Treasury handouts to operate, a finance ministry report said. The Cashew Corporation made one percent of the country’s annual production of 8,000 metric tonnes but there wasn’t enough focus on developing cashew […]