In keeping up with the special 2019- budget proposal, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe directed officials to allocate Rs 100 million for the development purposes of sap based products such as jiggery, sweet toddy products, sugar candy and toddy bottling through new technology, said the Secretary to the Ministry of National Policies, Economic Affairs, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, Northern Province Development and Youth Affairs., Mr.V. Sivagnanasothy.
The Palmyrah sector is an important sector for livelihood development in the Northern and Eastern Provinces. Although there are 11 million Palmyrah trees in the Northern Province, they are not used effectively to realize the full economic potential.
“The sap production is very high during February to August. It is also noted that the tapping community is the most poverty affected group and they are not fully realizing the benefits due to the seasonal nature of the production of SAP and the inadequate attention onsap based value added products,” said Mr. V. Sivagnanasothy, Secretary to the Ministry.
Due to inadequate income from tapping and social stigma, the number of tappers is on decline in the recent past. However, there are over 7500 members in the Palm Development Co-operative Societies in the Northern Province which can be activated and strengthened.
Therefore, during the recent visit by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to the Northern Province, the members of the Palm Development Societies expressed their concerns on the need to support their economic and livelihood activities. In this context, Premier Wickremesinghe directed the Ministry to develop palmyrah based jaggery production and other related SAP products which have very high demand in the Island as well as among diaspora and global community.
The jaggery production has medicinal values, nutritional value andorganic values with low Glycemic Index while serving as a sweetener. Therefore, the Ministry of National Policies, Economic Affairs, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, Northern Province Development and Youth Affairs has identified active PalmDevelopmentCo-operativeSocieties and plans to support them with palmyrah jaggery plant and related technology.
The project support will include provision of Modern Jaggery Plant, Sweet toddy bottling facility, toddy bottling plant, sugar Candy production facility,Jaggery Centres in the Northern Districts covering Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu and other districts. The project activities have already started.
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