Sri Lanka to plant 5,500 hectares anew with rubber

Colombo - ColomboPage reports that Sri Lanka's Rubber Development Department aims to plant 5,500 hectares with rubber within this year. The government will spend Rs. 195 million for this purpose. Of this area, 1,850 hectares are land that belonged to plantation companies and new land introduced for rubber cultivation in the Monaragala district. The Department expects to produce 1,980,000 rubber saplings in government-owned nurseries and licenses have been issued for a further twenty nurseries in the private sector.