Sri Lanka Army has entered into s joint venture with a private enterprise to allow the cultivation of Army-owned lands in the country.
The Army has recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Letsgrow (Pvt) Ltd allow the company cultivate non traditional crops in selected Army-owned lands, farms and formations across the country.
Army Commander Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya and Director of Letsgrow (Pvt) Ltd. Promodya Wickremasinghe have signed the MoU.
The peace-time Sri Lankan Army aims to broaden its horizons by foraying into large scale agro-industry, farming and dairy products.
Under the new agreement, Letsgrow, which has potential buyers for agricultural products, both here and abroad is to provide modern foreign expertise and training opportunities to Army personnel on the latest agro-industry practices once they commence work on the farms.
The Army says its 3000-acre Kandekadu farm will be the site for the pilot project under the MoU to grow bananas and pineapples. The project expects to provide employment to civil sector workers as it reaches its full capacity within a few years with the support of the Army administration.
According to the Army, due to troop requirements and escalation of terrorist violence in related areas, almost all the agricultural and dairy farms, maintained by the Army before the war intensified, have been left unattended. The Army now has focused on using the abandoned lands for agro projects to government's island-wide agricultural drive.
No comments:
Post a Comment