Herbal farmer Village project of the Ministry of Indigenous Medicine started on 28th, March 2005 and it was expected by this project to minimize the cost increased annually for the foreign countries for the import of dried herbs. A survey conducted in 2000 revealed that nearly a sum of Rs 125 Million is annually spent for the dried herbs. There had been a much import of dried herbs such as Katuwelbatu, Amukkara, Asamodagam, welmee, Pathpadagam and Dewadara. The major expectation of this project was to identify herbs which are locally cultivatable and turn out a new farmer community for the cultivation of herbs to popularize this cultivation as a source of income generation. The progress achieved hitherto and its objectives are as follows;
Establishment and maintenance of herbal farmers Village
Development of Herb Gardens
Expansion of herb cultivation in association with Gama Neguma Programmed (100 farmers of lowest income group in 19 districts are selected a
nd they are encouraged for the commercial cultivation of herbs granting them necessary infrastructure facilities.)
Extension of herbal farmer village programme in the villages affected by terrorist menace in concurrence with national saviya programme. Accordingly action is being taken to divert the Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities in the Divisional secretary’s Division of Gomarankadawala to the cultivation of Katuvelbatu.
Hambantota: - 417 farmers selected from Meegahajandura, Bandagiriya, Andaraweva and Gannoruwa contributed to the activities of the herbal farmer village project in Hambantota. They cultivate Elabatu, Katuvelbatu, Enderu and Asamodagam. A farmer should cultivate ¼ acre or 1 ½ acres to the maximum for Elabatu cultivation. A farmer receives an income ranging from around Rs. 5000/- to Rs. 15,000/- from the fruits of Elabatu cultivation. In particular the inhabitants of such villages which underwent. Tsunami devastation use elabatu for their food every day. The reason is that Elabatu cultivation resists even severe drought. The farmers, after reaping the fruits, sell the remaining part of the Elabatu tree (totally dried tree) to the Ayurvedic drugs co-operation at a price of Rs. 35/- 45/- under the facilities of this project. It has been a source of income of the farmers as well as a source of Ayurvedic Drugs Corporation to obtain dried elabatu roots of required standard (It has been revealed that the external suppliers mostly provide vambatu roots falsely).
On 25.02.2006, 2100 kilograms of Elabatu roots were handed over to the Ayurvedic drugs co-operation as a first harvest of elabatu cultivation in Hambantota. The farmers were able to earn around a sum of Rs. 63,000/- Such farmers have set up farmers societies and action is being taken by this project to provide machines to such societies to extract oil from the seeds such as kohomba and mee. It has been planned to earn an additional income from extraction of oil from the seeds collected by the society in the Hambantota district. Accordingly action has already been initiated to introduce a saving scheme for the farmers. Our expectation is to motivate the farmers to save 25% of their income from the cultivation of herbs. The main demand of the farmers is to provide them barbed wires to construct a fence for the protection of their cultivation from the cattle. It is expected to make arrangements to meet their demand under this project in view of their need deviating from our objective to provide them infrastructure facilities.
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