Sri Lanka’s tea cultivation blends into modern era with new technology

Sri Lanka’s tea cultivation is to be modernised using novel technology with the aim of reclaiming its rightful place in the global market, Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amraweera told the Times Online   

The ministry will be promoting high density tea cultivation and drip irrigation technology to increase tea harvest as well as to improve the productivity and quality, he disclosed.

He noted that he has directed the Tea Small Holdings Development Authority to popularise this new technology to increase yield.

The new tea cultivation modernisation  programme will be introduced to high-grown and mid-grown plantations on the directions of President Ranil Wickremesinghe with the aim of developing a very competitive tea industry

“Maximum yields and high-quality tea can be obtained from a minimum amount of land through this high density system,” Minister Amaraweera said.

13,000 tea plants can be planted under this high-density cultivation method compared to 6,500 planted per acre, he revealed adding that a high yield of 1500 kg of tea leaves could be obtained comparing to 300 kg of tea leaves under the normal system, he explained.

Therefore, tea small holders can increase their income by five times by using the new cultivation system.

The advantage of this system is getting the high yield with minimum volume of water and minimum amount of fertiliser.   

The high density tea cultivation and drip irrigation systems have been introduced to 52 tea small holdings as a pilot project.

Results showed that drip irrigation of tea not only increased yields but also gave water saving benefits of up to 50 per cent from application of 50 per cent less water to remove the cumulative soil water and with labour saving of 85 per cent for irrigation. (Bandula)