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| Sunday, 8 May 2005 |
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International partnerships vital to develop agriculture The Central Bank (CB) said that international partnerships are necessary to overcome current issues and introduce high yield crop varieties, new technology and improve research and development in the agriculture sector. Presenting the Republic Commemoration Lecture on state of the economy as reflected in the CB annual report 2004, Director Economic Research, Dr. H. N. Thenuwara said that the economy grew at an average annual rate of 4.2 percent over the last five decades and it is much below the rate required to sustainably reduce unemployment and poverty. The Central Bank pointed out essential issues that have to be addressed and policies to be adopted to achieve 6-8 percent sustainable economic growth. Dr. Thenuwara stressed the importance of developing the agricultural sector as the sector mainly contributed to slim the GDP growth rate in 2004 to 5.4% from 6% the previous year. Sustainable development in the plantation and non-plantation sectors are required while productivity in both sectors have to be increased. The CB stressed the need for productivity improvement and crop diversification in the plantation sector. The issues in the non-plantation agriculture sector are financing, land utilisation, lack of guidance and extension services, low yield crop varieties and low productivity. To overcome these issues it is recommended to introduce high yield crop varieties and new technology and improve research and development in the sector. International partnerships have been proposed for the purpose, Dr. Thenuwara said. |
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