Corporate sector partners National Farmer Awards 2017

The 12th edition of this much looked after national event among the Sri Lankan farming community will be held on Sunday 6 August at 2 p.m. at the ‘Mihilaka Medura’ Bandaranaike Memorial Conference Centre under the patronage of the Minster of Agriculture Duminda Dissanayake. 

The National Farmer Awards was launched in 2006 by the National Agribusiness Council (NAC) to encourage enterprising farmers. It is a national need to uplift the status of local agriculture productivity and farmer income in the country at a time the world is faced with a global food crisis. The National Farmer Awards is jointly organised annually by the National Agribusiness Council with the Ministry of Agriculture.

This year the event has a special significance in view of the exceptionally close ties with all the key stakeholders and commitment of the corporate sector agri business entities, the government agencies involved in agriculture, the farming community, the dairy and livestock sector, the plantation community and the export agri sectors. National Agribusiness Council Chairman Rizvi Zaheed said the integration of all partners in Sri Lankan agriculture into the domestic and global value added agriculture value chain has now gained enormous traction and contributing to livelihood enhancement of farmers and improvement of agricultural productivity. 

“The key contributors, the farmers of our country, must thus be recognised and endorsed for the invaluable contribution they are making toward the development of agriculture in Sri Lanka,” Zaheed added. The National Farmer Awards are an important part of this initiative.

The corporate sector has supported the program wholeheartedly with major contributions coming from Singer Sri Lanka PLC who are sponsoring the first prize, while Hayleys Agriculture Holdings Ltd. are the sponsors of the second prize while the third prize is sponsored by the agriculture division of DIMO Ltd. 

Valuable partner sponsorships have also been provided by Innovative Pesticides Marketing Ltd., Plenty Foods Ltd. (Samaposha), CBL Natural Foods Ltd., Best Seeds Company Ltd., Agro Culture Trends Ltd., among other agriculture dealers and companies.

The National Agribusiness Council (NAC), established in June 2000, is focused on the objectives of its founder sponsor – the USAID funded Agro Enterprises Project (AgEnt), driving the development of the national agribusiness sector. As the apex representative body for the sector, NAC’s objectives encompass a wide range of services designed to make Sri Lanka’s agribusiness sector competitive in the globalized market place. NAC consists of 14 associations and 30 corporate and public enterprise members with over 6,500 agribusiness related stakeholders covering every sub-sector of the national agribusiness chain playing a vital role in local agribusiness development. The Council offers leadership to strengthen a globally competitive private sector driven agribusiness development.

National Farmer Awards applications from all districts have been evaluated to asses farmer commitment towards the sector, innovation, sustainability, the annual income gained from agriculture, use of new technologies, knowledge and the application of good agriculture practices (GAP), farm management etc. This year the evaluation at field level has been conducted by a highly competent panel of agriculturists from the Department of Agriculture who will be contributing their honorary services towards the finalisation of this enormous task in all 25 districts of the country.

In keeping with the vision of the President, supported by the Minister of Agriculture, the National Agribusiness Council fully integrates with this vision and partners with the various government agencies involved in agriculture. The key goals of food security, nutrition security and sustainable agriculture drive the cohesive work programs of the National Agribusiness Council. NAC along with Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) and the Lanka Fruit & Vegetable Producers Processors and Exporters Association partners with the Dept. of Agriculture to implement the Sri Lanka Good Agriculture Practices (SL-GAP) which has already being officially launched.