Army Farms Begin to Reap Vegetables and Paddy Harvest around the Country

February 11, 2023

The Army-managed island-wide farms are currently engaged in collecting the Maha season's paddy harvest and seasonal vegetables after they were cultivated in respective farms several months ago in order to support the government's food security programme.

Accordingly, troops of the Sri Lanka Army Corps of Agriculture and Livestock in close consultation with the Green Agriculture Steering Committee (GASC), established by the Commander of the Army Lieutenant General Vikum Liyanage, collected paddy and vegetable harvests from Army Farms in Pangolla, Dayagama, Ridiyagama, Menikfarm, Weeravila and Iranamadu in the past few days. To-date, troops have reaped a stock of 120.3 metric tons of paddy from Army farms.

The Sri Lanka Army Corps of Agriculture and Livestock (SLACAL) formally raised on 4^th January 2021 presently manages 19 Army farms across the country and they are closely supervised by the Directorate of Agriculture and Livestock under the guidelines given by both Major General Shiran Abeysekera, Colonel Commandant, SLACAL and Director General Financial Management (DGFM) of the Army and Brigadier Arosha Rajapakse, Director, Directorate of Agriculture and Livestock.

The SLACAL has already started the cultivation of indigenous and general paddy varieties, carrot, pumpkin, brinjal, corn, radish, etc, in addition to the production of dairy items, chicken and eggs which are largely sold to Army personnel as well as to the general public at subsidized rates.

Courtesy - www.army.lk