Sri Lanka develops new cultivar of tea

By Cheranka Mendis

Sri Lanka has come out with a new ‘5000 series’ of cultivar, which will be released to the market in two years, Tea Research Institute Chairman Dr. S.D.G Jayawardena disclosed yesterday.

The series is now being tested with small holder and plantation companies and is expected to give a 10% higher yield than the previous series. “It is of a better quality and drought, pest and disease tolerant.

It would be a high yielding clone,” Jayawardena said at a media briefing on the sidelines of the 20th session of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Inter Governmental Group (IGG) on Tea, hosted by Sri Lanka in Colombo. The TRI Chief noted that the industry is powered with 20 varieties, of which some were bred several decades ago. “After that we have bred ‘3000’ series and ‘4000’ series and they have been released for cultivation. We are now coming out with a ‘5000’ series, which will be released in two years.”