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| Sunday, 24 August 2003 |
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PM calls for South Asian farming to go hi-tech Chennai, Aug. 23 (AFP) - Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called Saturday for his country and neighbouring India to embrace modern technology and organisation to become successful agricultural exporters. Inaugurating a "virtual academy" on agriculture in the southern Indian city Madras, Wickremesinghe said farmers should be freed from the "cycle of subsistence" and emerge as agricultural suppliers. "We have to supply food to a world that is becoming increasingly prosperous. How we make this possible using the scarce resources of land and water is the big challenge before us," Wickremesinghe said. The Virtual Academy of Food Security and Rural Prosperity is the brainchild of leading ecologist M.S. Swaminathan and will research ways to empower often illiterate Indian villagers, including women, through scientific know-how. The premier said Swaminathan had visited Sri Lanka and offered recommendations that were being implemented. In one example, Wickremesinghe said his government would bring legislation to organise farmers in community councils "to modernise the local economy". Swaminathan's "virtual academy" spawned out of centres set up by his foundation in southern India that bring telephones, computers and e-mail access to villagers whose farm methods have been unchanged for generations. Despite India's vaunted progress in the hi-tech industry, agriculture employs more than 70 percent of its billion-plus people and accounts for a quarter of its Gross Domestic Product. Sri Lanka on Thursday offered subsidies to exporters and urged its citizens to eat more rice after a record harvest made possible as new lands opened up due to a truce with Tamil Tiger rebels in place since February 2002. Wickremesinghe is paying a weekend visit to southern India that includes a visit to a temple and a dinner hosted by the publishers of The Hindu newspaper. |
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