Paddy cultivation on a sound footing

by Ananda KANNANGARA

The Agriculture Development and Agrarian Services Ministry, Secretary, Sirisena Amarasekara in an interview with the Sunday Observer last week said his Ministry's priority intention was to improve the country's paddy cultivation.

"To fulfil this objective, the farmer community should be encouraged to harvest the abandoned paddy lands," he said.

"According to statistics, we have found to know that there are over 100,000 acres of abandoned paddy lands as well as cultivable lands in the country, but many farmers do not show much enthusiasm to cultivate them," he said.

He said as we have all the natural resources to cultivate paddy, and if all paddy lands are cultivated, the rice production could be largely increased.

The Ministry Secretary also said the younger generation who always seek State or private sector employment opportunities should be motivated and encouraged towards agriculture, especially paddy cultivation.

When asked about the current position of the country's rice production, he said during 2005 over nine lakhs hectares of paddy lands cultivated and during 2008 it had increased by another one lakh hectares, due to numerous measures taken by the Government to encourage farmers to cultivate more paddy lands.

He further said during 2005, Sri Lanka produced nearly 3.2 million metric tonnes of rice and in 2008 it had increased to 3.9 million.

"This significant improvement resulted in the Government in reducing the import of rice even at emergency situations,".

He said in addition to the fertiliser subsidy, farmers have been granted numerous other benefits as well to improve paddy and other cultivations,".

"The Government slashed taxes on imported agricultural equipment, pesticide etc. helped the farmer community to obtain short-term bank loans to re-cultivate abandoned paddy lands,".

Referring to the fertilizer subsidy, the Secretary commended the subsidised fertilizer program and said that the fertilizer should be sold even in the open market at Rs. 350, so that the farmers will be encouraged to cultivate more and more lands. In addition to the paddy cultivation, the Ministry also increased the maize cultivation in the dry zone as in Anuradhapura, Moneragala, Kataragama and Polonnaruwa districts.

He said 28,400 hectares of maize were cultivated in 2005 and it had increased to 51,000 hectares in 2008, since maize was used to make `Triposha' and poultry foods. The Ministry Secretary also highlighted the increase of cowpea, gram, greengram, pepper, chillies, cinnamon and oorid dhal (Ulundu) cultivation during 2008 and 2009 and said the fertilizer subsidy has been extended to these cultivations as well.

He said in addition, his Ministry had introduced `Agri Wells' in the dry zone which has largely benefited the farmers during the dry season.

The Secretary highlighted the importance of `Solar Power Drip Irrigation' system, that has helped the farmers in rural areas where electricity was not available.

"We have provided solar power units to farmers through Gramin banks and each such unit could be used to provide sufficient water to a block of about 80 perches of land".

He said solar power equipment were imported from Australia and was very popular among farmers since labour cost could be minimized.

Meanwhile, the Ministry has also taken steps to develop the vegetable cultivation, the poultry and diary farming.

Quoting recent statistics, the Secretary said that nearly 70 per cent of fertile land in the districts of Ratnapura, Kalutara, Southern Province and North Western Province have been neglected by its owners for several years due to financial problems, recurrent floods, lack of irrigation facilities and also higher labour charges.

He said Divisional Secretariats would have to play a major role to make the cultivation program a success.

"Accordingly, they will have to identify abandoned lands and encourage the owners of such lands to utilise them for agricultural, poultry or cattle farming, he said.

The Government has provided nearly Rs. 67,000 million for the fertilizer subsidy for this year and steps would also be taken to help farmers further by providing financial assistance through State and rural banks, the secretary assured.