Two million families engaged in farming

Around two million families in Sri Lanka are engaged in farming as their main occupation, said Agriculture Minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena.

Over 70 per cent of the paddy lands belong to smallholders who own less than one hectare of land. The rural areas form about 70-80 per cent of the country, he said.

Addressing the 27th Technical Committee meeting of the Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and Pacific (CIRDAP), held in Colombo last week the Minister said that Sri Lanka is predominant an agricultural country in which agriculture impinges on the life of every person in some form or the other, either as a producer, a consumer, or a person in the marketing chain or the service sector.

Agriculture and rural development policies, programs and projects are crucial for Sri Lanka’s economic development, he said. The share of the agriculture contribution to the GDP has declined continuously from 50.1 in 1950 to 12 percent in 2010, he added. The contribution by the agriculture sector to employment has decreased from 36.8 percent in 2010, the Minister further stated.