63,750 acres ready for green gram cultivation in the field of stubble (Ipanella) in 2024 Mid-Season

The Ministry of Agriculture and Plantation Industries has decided to commence the 2024 Mid- Season immediately after the end of this Yala Season.

A discussion was held regarding the Mid-Season of the year 2024 with the participation of officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Agriculture, Department of Irrigation, Mahaweli Authority, Department of Agrarian Development and Inter-Provincial today (03).

Minister of Agriculture and Plantation Industries, Mahinda Amaraweera chaired the meeting and he emphasized that plans should be made to start green gram cultivation in the field of stubble ( Ipanella) as soon as the Yala Season paddy is harvested.

Accordingly, it was planned to cultivate 63,750 acres of green grams under 40,000 acres under irrigation, 16,250 acres under Mahaweli and 7,500 acres under inter-provincials.

Currently, the green gram seeds required for this purpose are available in self-seeded form at the farmers’ disposal and there are about 150,000 kg of green gram, according to the crop leader of green gram cultivation in the Department of Agriculture.

The annual requirement of green gram in our country is 20,000 metric tons. It was emphasized in this discussion that this amount can be completed through the cultivation of 25,000 hectares.

The Minister advised all sectors to programme this work order to produce the entire amount of green grams required by the country in this Mid Season.

The Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and Plantation Industry Janaka Dharmakirthi and other officials participated in this discussion.