Minister of Plantation Industries Dr.

Ramesh Pathirana has highlighted the importance of identifying new areas for rubber plantation as an option to attend to diminishing cultivations.Addressing an occasion to introduce a job moneyed by France to support small holder rubber planters, the Minister mentioned that rubber planters shifting to other crop cultivation need to be strategically addressed.Meanwhile, the French Ambassador in Sri Lanka mentioned that Sri Lanka and France can improve farming cooperation to uplift industries such as rubber, a significant foreign exchange earner to the country.Rubber enhancement of Value Chain and Embedded Small Holders Resilience (RIVER) job was introduced today at the Ministry of Plantation Industries with the aim of supporting 6,000 small-scale rubber plantations in Sri Lanka.

Funded by the French Government together with French tire making company Michelin, the job will be technically supported by French Consultancy company KSAPA.