Thursday, 20 March 2014 00:00
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The National Agri Business Council (NAC), the apex body for agribusiness in Sri Lanka, organised an agri machinery workshop recently in a bid to introduce new agri machineries to the local agricultural sector.
The event, titled ‘The Pathway to Productivity,’ was held at Taj Samudra Hotel, Colombo.
NAC says there is a need for “fast tracking” the introduction of much needed agricultural machinery to increase the productivity of the local agricultural sector.
Seven overseas agri-machinery manufactures from Japan, China, Thailand and India made presentations at this workshop.
Delivering the keynote address during the event, Dr. Rohan Wijekoon, Director General of Agriculture, said that the entire island is rich with 46 agro ecological zones and cultivation can be done throughout the year. According to him, big onion and potato cultivations have already taking place during the off season.
He further stressed that the concept of poly tunnel can be easily practiced in the field and pointed out that introducing agri machinery will play a major role to enhance productivity with this concept.
Chinthaka Balasooriya of Farm Machinery Research Centre (FMRC) described the local requirement and licensing procedure of the agri machinery. Concluding remarks and the vote of thanks were delivered by NAC Chairman Aruna Weerakoon.
The event was sponsored by Shell Oil and its local partner NM Distributors Ltd. and many local and international participants graced the occasion.
Chairman Elect Rohitha Nanayakkara explained the objectives of the workshop and mentioned that the workshop would help create awareness among all stakeholders of new agricultural machinery.
