Govt. to develop a national agriculture policy: Duminda

Agriculture Minister Duminda Dissanayake addresses the meeting. National Chamber of Commerce President Thilak Godamanna, Senior Deputy President Sujeeve Samaraweera, Deputy President Asela de Livera and Secretary General and CEO Bandula Dissanayake are also present - Pic by Sameera Wijesinghe 

By Waruni Paranagamage

Minister of Agriculture Duminda Dissanayake yesterday asserted that the Government will develop a national agriculture policy to identify the actual demands of the agricultural sector and work towards meeting them.

Addressing the first meeting of the program‘Meet the Minister’ organised by the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (NCCSL), the Minister said that the upcoming Budget would place emphasis on rural agriculture via the development of national level agricultural programs.

“Due to the oversupply during the season, the farmers face price discrimination in the market fortheir agricultural products. So we need to recognise the equilibrium level of agricultural supply and demand before addressing the issue. We need a vast amount of data and information to estimate the real requirement.It can be addressed only through a national policy for the agriculture sector,” the Minister added.

He said that the national policy would be framed according to the diversity of the landscape and climate differences.

He further asserted that the specified areas for the agricultural products would be further developed by increasing potential.  

Responding to questions from stakeholders in the audience, the Minister asserted that technology development, land development and knowledge development in the agricultural sector would be considered for funding in the upcoming Budget.

“We have around 10,000 officials to support the development process of the agricultural programs. We should expand small-scale farming to meet national level business. Currently manioc and banana have good export demand and we should think of developing this as a large scale business in order to reap the maximum benefits,” the Minister said.

Around 150 business people representing all the districts engaged in agriculture farming participated at the event.