Plantation Minister Ramesh Pathirana says that 17 multipurpose centres for collecting and selling green tea and other agricultural products are planned to be set up in six districts.
The Minister said that Rs. 68 million has been allocated for the construction of these multipurpose centres in Galle, Matara, Ratnapura, Badulla, Kandy and Nuwara Eliya districts by the Tea Small Holdings Development Authority under the Active Star Project.

The Minister further said that this will serve about 2500 smallholders in the respective areas and in addition to collecting green tea leaves, the people will also have the opportunity to collect and sell other agro products including cinnamon, pepper, arecanut, kithul and jaggery through these centres.

The Star Project will also support tea replanting, intercropping and home gardening in the districts where these multipurpose centers will be built. Under this, cinnamon plants, mango, rambutan, passion fruit and custard apple plants will be distributed among the families of small tea estate members.

The members of the Star Project will be provided with wheelbarrows, shovels, hoes, hoses, nets, etc. to produce organic manure for home gardening, and the Tea Small Holdings Development Society will be provided with a composting machine for the production of compost, said Janasinghe, Director, Star Project.

He said that this machine can shred 1000 kilos of raw material required for compost production and it is capaable of producing ten times more compost than the existing standard.
The project director added that the multi-purpose building, which also houses a library, could be used for various community events and educational seminars and workshops organized for children in the area.