Agriculture Minister calls for high priority investment in agriculture

Agriculture Minister Duminda Dissanayake notes that investment in agriculture plays a pivotal role in addressing the challenge of global food and nutrition security. “We should encourage all stakeholders at national, regional and global levels to work closely with the professionals in the fields of science, technology and industry to ensure that investment in the agriculture sector is given high priority in the country’s investment strategy for sustainable development,” the Minister observes. Dissanayake made this observation addressing the 39th conference of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Rome last week. Following is the full text of the speech:

Mr. Chairperson, Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, firstly, I wish to convey the best wishes of President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena and the Government of Sri Lanka to Director General of the FAO Jose Graziano da Silva, who leads his team to achieve the set targets clearly spelt out in the strategic framework, which is being presented and discussed during the conference. I am sure the deliberations will address the issues of the member countries, and find favourable solutions towards the prosperity and wellbeing of the people of our nations.

As the Minister of Agriculture of Sri Lanka, I am thankful to Jose Graziano da Silva personally, for having invited me for this conference and therefore consider it a privilege and an honour to make this statement on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka at this esteemed forum.

Many of you are aware, that the agriculture sector is the foundation of Sri Lanka’s economy, with 70% of the population living in rural areas, who depends on agriculture for their livelihoods. It contributes about 10% to the Gross Domestic Product, and employees 28% of the workforce. Despite being a small island nation, Sri Lanka has good potential for economic development through development of the agricultural sector, and therefore the Government is extremely optimistic of ensuring food and nutrition security of the country through self-sufficiency and increased production of safe and quality food.

In this context, the Government of Sri Lanka has placed the agriculture sector as a high priority area. 

Considering the culture and history of agriculture in Sri Lanka and the fact that most Sri Lankans are involved in agriculture, a key focus in the national economy is agriculture and that has been spelt out in the policies of the present Government.

Having identified the impact of soaring food prices during off season, the Government implemented an alternative program; a special home gardening project termed ‘Avaraya Ahawari’ (Off season is over), which promotes off season cultivation. The program was launched during the current Government’s 100 day program in a bid to increase vegetable production, and making available the harvest throughout the year in order to stabilise market prices.

The intention of this project was to establish 0.7 million of home gardens covering all villages in the country. Its prime objective is to strengthen the peoples’ economic status and minimise their dependency on the market for food and nutrition requirements. This program aims to raise food production through distribution of high yielding seedlings and providing training to the non-farming community.

A high level committee on ‘Food and Nutrition Security and Monitoring of Cost of Living’ meets regularly to review the food situation in the country, price movements in the market and to study other developments in the sector to make policy directives to address the issues. Moreover the Government has introduced the following policy measures to compliment the aforesaid programs.

They are:

nThe expansion of paddy purchasing program, raising the floor price of paddy and imposing a ceiling price for rice;

nContinuing with the fertiliser subsidy scheme with further expansion to other crops;

nRelaxing seed import policy allowing the importation of hybrid seeds;

nMake provisions to introduce import duty concessions for agricultural machinery;

nTimely adjustment of import tariffs to cater to the needs of producers and consumers.

As a result of these strategies and directives, Sri Lanka has achieved self-sufficiency in rice and maize, which are our staple food and feed materials.

The country is also blessed with good potential to produce pulses, such as green gram, soybean, black gram, cereal-finger millet and other crops, such as potato, chillies and big onion within the country. 

However, the current production levels of these crops are not adequate to meet the national requirements. 

Hence, the Government is in the process of launching special projects aimed at increasing the production of these crops. In addition, we are now focusing our attention on improving the sub-sectors of mechanisation of the agriculture sector, empowering women, e-agriculture and agri-market development. 

The mechanisation of the agriculture sector is being promoted as a safe and environmentally friendly cultivation system as an alternative to the heavy use of agro-chemicals. The excessive use of agro-chemicals and its mixture with brackish waters have been attributed as a cause to a chronic kidney disease that is widespread in Sri Lanka’s agricultural zones. The Government has therefore arrived at a policy decision to promote mechanisation in the agriculture sector as a solution to the kidney disease.

The Government will also launch the FAO’s ‘Zero Hunger Challenge’ program later this month.

In order to address the challenge of global food and nutrition security, investment in agriculture plays a pivotal role in fostering agricultural productivity. We should encourage all stakeholders at national, regional and global levels to work closely with the professionals in the fields of science, technology and industry to ensure that investment in the agriculture sector is given high priority in the country’s investment strategy for sustainable development.

At this juncture, it is pertinent to mention the valuable contribution made thus far by the FAO, which has assisted our country and continues to support us with an array of projects. This assistance has given a kind of relief to the Government in terms of financial and technical support. The Government of Sri Lanka highly appreciates this assistance and support rendered by the FAO and looks forward to receiving similar support in future, under the leadership of the incumbent Director General Jose Graziano da Silva and his team.

I thank you.