This weekend, Agriculture Minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage toured the Ambul banana cultivation areas, looking at the bananas that were produced for the export market in Anuradhapura Rajanganaya.
The cultivation of this organic banana is carried out on 600 ha, with some 700 farmers participating. There is a great demand for Ambul bananas in the foreign market. At present the foreign exchange earned from local fruit exports is US$ 80 million. The government aims to increase it to US$ 1 billion. That is one of the reasons steps will be taken to increase the foreign exchange earned from the export of Ambul bananas from this project.
According to dailymirror.lk¸ 70 percent of farmers in the country cultivate Ambul bananas at present. Increased sales, disease resistance are the main reasons for this trend.