PPA: A UNITED VOICE FOR SRI LANKA'S PRIVATE PLANTERS ASSOCIATION

Sri Lanka's Plantation Agriculture sector covering: Tea; Rubber; Coconut; Palmyrah; Spice Crops; Sugarcane; Gliricidia; and Commercial Timber including Food and Fruit Crop sectors, has long been a cornerstone of our economy, with a stagnating GDP of around USD 80 Bn, shaping both our heritage and global reputation with unique Land and/or Soil: Bio-Geo-Chemical Identity (Geographical Identity -Gl and Geographical Origin - GO) and Diverse-Agro-Ecologies in a very few Lowest Global-Gravity Isles poisoned from the movement of the Gondwananland (Complex) some140 Mn-100 Mn Years ago.

- By Dr. Wimal Wimaladasa, Formerly: TRI; SLSPC; JEDB; SLTB

However, despite its potential, proprietary planters (below 50 acres or 20 ha) have often struggled to gain the institutional support and strategic backing that state-managed / or shared estates (RPCs) receive from the Planters Association (PA) covering: RPCs managing 396 Large Tea, Rubber Estates; Smaller proprietary plantations (at or above 10 ha or 25 acres); Private owners of factories processing plantation crops; Proprietary planters; Agricultural produce brokers; Plantation engineering firms; and Agricultural advisers/Experts on plantation crops.

Hence, The establishment of the Proprietary Planters Association (PPA) is a pivotal step toward uniting and empowering Sri Lanka's absolute private planters, ensuring they benefit from State-of-the-art (SMART) agronomic and processing including Marketing strategies and best practices that drive long-term productivity.

Some Scientific Breakthroughs in Tea: Lessons from the Past

Through extensive research and implementation, we established that low soil and plant potassium (K) and magnesium (Mg) were major limiting factors to tea crop yield and overall productivity. By adopting a structured approach-including annual, mid-cycle, and cycle applications of local dolomite with a minimum of 18% MgO, along with: