Finance Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s decision to ban the import of small crops to protect farmers has sprouted seeds of fresh hope among farmers. Thousands of pepper farmers who were left powerless by falling prices for their crops had a sigh of relief as they learnt on Friday morning that the government had banned the import of black pepper along with several other minor export crops such as areca nuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cardamom, ginger, turmeric and cloves for re-export.
