SL should cut down on food imports

Agrarian Commissionergeneral D.M. Weerasekara Bandara said a water management mechanism would be implemented soon to release water sparingly for cultivation and to save water for the next season.

Addressing a ceremony at the Kuruvita Agrarian Development Centre to felicitate elderly farmers who had dedicated their lives for the county’s agriculture, he said the import of food items almost in unlimited quantities had been going on for decades and that many crops including rice, cowpea, maize, chilies and potatoes could be grown in Sri Lanka.

He said the colossal expenditure of foreign exchange wasted on import of food items could be reduced to the barest minimum and that the country could be saved from the burden of debt servicing if we could gain selfsufficiency in food. “The monthly expenditure on staff salaries of the Agrarian Development Services Department is Rs.520 million. We consider it the duty of the department to relieve the county of the burden of foreign debts by developing the agricultural sector. The department has implemented a programme to give a new impetus to agriculture. Steps have been taken to cultivate all abandoned paddy fields in the country. Water management is an integral part of agricultural development. Irrigation facilities for cultivation should be available throughout the year. This could be achieved only through water management,” he said.

He further said elderly farmers who shed their sweat for the country’s agriculture should be felicitated just as commemorating Ranaviru personnel.