A private seed corporate company in Sri Lanka, CIC Seeds (Pvt) Ltd, after intensive research with an American company has developed and launched 5 new varieties of hybrid vegetable seeds locally from their seed farm, Pelwehera, Dambulla.
This is in a bid to increase productivity in the local agro sector and minimize the FOREX drain for the importation of hybrid vegetable seed varieties. A fully owned subsidiary of CIC Agribusiness invested over Rs. 250 million for this project over a period of around three years.
"Sri Lankan seed industry is lagging and today the country imports almost all its hybrid seed requirements, spending over USD 25 million per annum," said Managing Director CICAgri Cluster Waruna Madawanarachchi. "Due to numerous constraints faced in meeting the increased demand for quality seed by the farmers, the government offered several incentives to get the private sector involved in the local seed industry."
CIC Seeds is the first corporate entity in the country to take up this challenge and to invest in local seed production with the technical collaboration of the Department of Agriculture (DOA).
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