Boost for agriculture

by L.S. Ananda WEDAARACHCHI

A new Parliamentary Act on Agricultural Development and Agrarian Services will be introduced soon, said Agriculture Development Minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena.

The present Act which was introduced in 2000 is not adequate to meet the agricultural and farmer needs of today, he said.

A salient feature of the new Act is its ability to set up dispute settlement tribunals islandwide. More than 10,000 farmer disputes have been pending for the last few years due to the lack of an appropriate institutional framework to resolve them.

The Minister said the achievements of the agriculture sector are remarkable. Imports of essential food items such as rice, grains and red onions had dropped by 41 percent, 65 percent and 31 percent respectively during the last year. The Mahinda Chinthana and Api Wavamu Rata Nagamu agricultural development project helped achieve self-sufficiency in rice and a few other food items, the Minister said. More than 100,000 of a total of 800,000 hectares of land which can be cultivated have been neglected by landowners. The new Agriculture Development Act will compel them to cultivate such land, he said.