Field week to evaluate Api Wawamu - Rata Nagamu project

By L.S.A. Wedaarachchi

A field week will be held from January 13-16 to ascertain the actual progress of the "Api Wawamu - Rata Nagamu" agricultural development project which commenced in September last year.

Over twenty-thousand government employees of the Ministry of Agriculture Development and Agrarian services and its Departments and statutory bodies will visit the villages, government offices and the agricultural projects to re-evaluate the agricultural activities under the "Api Wawamu - Rata Nagamu" project islandwide during this week, said T.M. Abeyawickrama, Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture Development and Agrarian Services.

"According to the progress reports received at the head office the project was highly successful. People had purchased four times of the annual vegetable seed demand during the past five months," he said. The household vegetable and food cultivation had been given special attention under this project. The unused fertile land and paddy fields belonging to the people and the various organisations were utilised for paddy, vegetable and crop cultivation during the last five months, he said.

According to the Secretary twenty-five Ministers of agricultural provinces have been assigned by the Minister of Agriculture Maithripala Sirisena to assess the agricultural activities in their provinces and report back to him.

The secretary said that the Agriculture Minister appreciates the hard work done by the officials for the success of the Api Wawamu - Rata Nagamu" project and the officers who had submitted wrong reports will also be dealt with in due course when the actual situation will be revealed during the "field week".

On the first day of the "Agriculture field survey week," Sunday, January 13 the members of the field week teams will visit the home garden families who are not full-time farmers but public and private sector employees.

The details and the shortcomings of the Api Wawamu - Rata Nagamu project will be discussed at these meetings.

The second day of the Agriculture field survey week, on Monday, January 14, will be the day for public and private sector office visits by the field teams.

The third, fourth and fifth days of the "Survey Week" will be used to meet farmer families islandwide.

A special appreciation message from the Agriculture Development and Agrarian Services Minister Maithripala Sirisena will be given to the farmers during these visits.

January 18 and 19 will be the last two days of the 'Agriculture Survey week' for Agriculture clinics and religious activities.