Paddy cultivation using traditional methods

by S.M. Wijayaratne, Kurunegala Cor

The Ministry of Agriculture plans to cultivate 100,000 acres of land with paddy by using traditional methods.

Accordingly, 50,000 acres of land would be cultivated with paddy using such methods during the forthcoming Maha season.

According to this system of conventional paddy cultivation, farmers would not use any chemicals.

The Ministry will offer assistance to paddy farmers to propagate this type of paddy cultivation in the future. Free expertise and subsidies would be provided by the Ministry. Already, 3,000 acres have been cultivated with paddy under this method.

The Department of Agriculture of the NWPC hopes to train 15,000 farmers in the Kurunegala and Puttalam districts this year on growing paddy and vegetables without using chemicals and Rs. 1.5 million would be invested in educating the farmers' community in this regard, Assistant Director of Agriculture, Kurunegala S.M. Ratnayake, told the Sunday Observer.