Hon. K.V. Samantha Viddyarathna - Minister of Plantation and Community Infrastructure
The Minister stated that the 2025 allocation for the Ministry of Plantation and Community Infrastructure includes multiple programmes to support the tea sector, including grants for smallholder replanting, new planting, infilling, mechanization, irrigation, transport equipment, nursery establishment, and factory upgrades. He said payments due from the previous year’s replanting programme would also be settled in 2025, and outlined additional measures such as solar panels for factories and support for plucking teams. The remarks were made in response to concerns raised about Government support for tea cultivation.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, some have raised concerns. For 2025, our Ministry has allocated substantial funds to uplift tea:
¶ 02 - Smallholder Tea Replanting Phase I grant programme: Rs. 345 million - Phase II: Rs. 17.5 million - Payments due for last year’s replanting to be made this year: Rs. 223 million - New planting on new lands: Rs. 274.2 million - Infilling under the Rehabilitation Project: Rs. 550 million - Direct tea cultivation grant programme: Rs. 60 million, including infilling support (Rs. 26.2 million) - Mechanization support for tea: Rs. 62.5 million - Irrigation support for holdings over 10 acres: Rs. 10 million - Plastic crates and nylon bags for green leaf transport: Rs. 35 million - Capacity development for smallholders: Rs. 3 million - Support for friendly plucking teams/equipment: Rs. 35 million - Solar panels on factories/warehouses to reduce electricity costs: Rs. 20 million - Tea nursery establishment: Rs. 17.5 million - Supply of 25 tea dryers to small-scale factories: Rs. 5 million
¶ 03 Accordingly, the Government plans a significant investment for tea this year.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Saturday, 22 February 2025 ·No. 1741001658041256 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: Hon. K.V. Samantha Viddyarathna - Minister of Plantation and Community Infrastructure. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 22 February 2025. No. 1741001658041256. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/24938