Govt. involvement bears fruit:

Significant growth in agriculture sector

by Ananda KANNANGARA

Agriculture Minister Hemakumara Nanayakkara

A significant development of the country’s agriculture sector could be seen during the past two years due to the Government’s direct involvement in the uplift of paddy cultivation, Agriculture Minister Hemakumara Nanayakkara said in an interview with the Sunday Observer.

Asked whether the series of agricultural programs such as `Api Wawamu- Rata Nagamu’,`National Food Week’ and the `Waga Sangramaya’ commenced by the Government during the past years were successful, the Minister said that all these agricultural programs were very successful and the country produced a large quantity of rice during the past two years.

“This resulted in the Food Ministry directing private shop owners to sell all varieties of rice at reduced prices to consumers,” the Minister said.

He said our staple food, rice is now sold at between Rs. 55 and Rs. 70 in the open market.

Commenting on the Government’s various agricultural programs, the Minister said the initial step of the ‘Api Wawamu-Rata Nagamu’ program was commenced last year from the Kalutara District and resulted in several acres of abandoned paddy lands being cultivated.

“The program is now being carried out successfully in other districts too,” he said.

The Minister said when he assumed duties, his first task was to carry out a survey and identify thousands of hectares of valuable paddy lands uncultivated at various rice-producing districts.

He said Agriculture Department officials in collaboration with Divisional Secretariats and Gramaseva Niladaris launched several programs and encouraged farmers to cultivate this land.

Farmers’ grievances

“The farmers made their grievances known and mentioned the reasons for their inability to cultivate their lands,” he said.

Minister Nanayakkara said he personally looked into these grievances and fulfilled some requests by granting the farmers bank loans to re-cultivate some of this abandoned paddy land.

“We also supported the farmers with new irrigation projects,” he said.

He said through these programs nearly 632,130 hectares of paddy lands were cultivated during 2009 and about 2,125,219 metric tonnes of rice produced during the period.

According to Agriculture Department statistics, the country’s paddy production had increased unexpectedly during the Maha Season of 2008 with the cultivation of nearly 81,899 hectares of new land; 2.4 million metric tonnes of rice were produced during this season. Minister Nanayakkara said a nine per cent increase in rice production had been recorded all over the country during this period.

Record rice production

He also predicted a record rice production during the 2009/2010 period due to harvest expected from the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

“The three-decade old war came to an end in May this year and our Ministry has already initiated programs to meet the farmer community in the North to discuss their needs”.

“We not only focus on the development of paddy cultivation in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, but also on fishing and the fruit and vegetable industries” he said.

“The program is currently in progress and is very successful, since many paddy land owners were compelled to re-cultivate their lands which were abandoned for several years due to the war”.

Asked about the progress of the `home garden’ cultivation program launched by the Agriculture Department to coincide with the ‘Waga Sangramaya’ program, Minister Nanayakkara said it had shown a significant improvement from its inception. All these programs are carried out with the support of Gramaseva Niladaris and Agricultural and Agrarian Services officials.

“Our officials make regular visits to the places where home garden projects are being carried out successfully, and discuss the problems that the people are facing and encourage them to cultivate their abandoned lands,” he said.

The Minister said the Agriculture Department also gives priority to farmers who are engaged in cultivating various other agricultural crops such as maize, green gram, cowpee, groundnut and soya.

Last year’s maize production had recorded a 3.7 per cent growth over the corresponding period of the previous year, while soya production had also gone up by 70 per cent due to various new agricultural programs carried out by the Department.

Through these new programs, farmers had been given bank loans to cultivate lands and provided with know-how to improve their production. He said green gram and groundnut production had not shown a significant improvement due to reasons such as the lack of irrigation facilities and prevailing drought conditions in these areas.

The Minister said in addition to paddy cultivation, steps have also been taken to develop the vegetable, poultry and dairy industries. Statistics show that nearly 70 per cent of fertile lands in the districts of Ratnapura, Kalutara, the Southern Province and North Western Province have been neglected by their owners for several years due to financial problems, floods, lack of irrigation facilities and higher labour charges.

Role of Divisional Secretariats

Asked about the role played by Divisional Secretariats of these areas to help the Government’s cultivation program, Minister Nanayakkara said the Secretariats have been empowered to identify abandoned lands in their respective areas and deal with their owners; whether they are prepared to utilise such land for agricultural purposes or wish to hand over the land to other interested parties to cultivate agricultural crops.

The Minister also stated that the Government’s fertilizer subsidy encouraged farmers to cultivate more paddy lands.

He said the fertilizer subsidy will be continued as assured by the Government and steps will also be taken to help farmers with financial assistance through State and rural banks. However, the Minister said that it was a national crime for some people to keep fertile lands idling when there were other parties interested in cultivating them.

The Minister also focused on the tax concession granted by the Government on agricultural equipment, and said that agricultural equipment could now be purchased through Cooperatives and Sathosa outlets.

Rice flour-based food products

When asked about the Government’s plan of popularising rice flour instead of wheat flour, the Minister said the Government spends a colossal amount of money every year to import wheat flour and this could be reduced by at least 50 per cent with the popularising of rice flour-based food items in the country.

“We have planned to educate bakery owners on the production of more rice flour-based bakery items,” he said.

He said his Ministry started a rice flour popularising program in the upcountry, especially within the plantation sector, to encourage people to reduce the consumption of wheat flour.

“The program was very successful and many of them now use food items combining rice flour and wheat flour. The Minister said in addition to the manufacture of rice flour-based food items, a program will soon be launched to make biscuits with rice flour and to sell them at cheaper rates to consumers.

Minister Nanayakkara also listened to grievances made by farmer organisations that the import of some food items such as onions and potatoes should be reduced to a greater extent during the harvesting season of such items in our country, to help local farmers sell their harvest without difficulties. In conclusion, the Minister highlighted Sri Lanka’s plans to sell rice to foreign countries in the near future. He said this should be possible since the Agriculture Ministry has encouraged paddy farmers throughout the island to cultivate more lands and the Government too has directly been involved in paddy cultivation.